Features » Wine Club Spain
THE TRADITION OF SPANISH WINE
Spanish Wine / 2012-01-23 16:24:10
First of all I want to thank my fellow editors of this new magazine to whom I wish all the best in this venture, and I am so grateful that they have given me the opportunity to write about something that I am passionate about.
This being the first issue, I will not talk about one area in particular, but I want to dedicate a few lines to the true enthusiast and the precious liquid. The enthusiast is the most important link in the chain. You the valued drinker are the one who procures the wine, and who most strengthens the wine producing sector. You help to metabolize the production. You could be a regular drinker, a stalwart, who raises the statistics of consumption per person per year, or an occasional consumer including, what I prefer, an informed enthusiast and you will find in this column not just a few thoughts directed at you.
I am a Mediterranean, a Latino and of course wine forms part of our culture whether we like it or not and it is repeated around the world that “the wine is our culture”.
If you come from a country with a tradition of wine production you are the direct heir of the civilization of wine. Also you can belong to a country recently colonized by wine. In both cases, you are at the same time a representative and also responsible for the quality of your wines.
To a lesser extent it is us, the consumers, who determine the quality. If there are bad wines it is because there are bad drinkers. Each person drinks the wine they deserve. If you choose to select a better wine you accept that you pay more for a wine because it is really superior and very quickly the wines improve. You have to get to know wine better in order to appreciate it. Drinking wine is not a solitary pleasure, but one of communication. If it is good say so. There are few pleasures that are as eloquent as having a glass in your hand surrounded by good company.
Wine at the same time is an experience of the senses and of the environment : a pleasure and a passion.
We should not forget that three senses contribute to its appreciation: sight, smell and taste.
Wine is something very old, whose origin is mixed with the same origins of our civilization.“Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world” said Hemingway
Today it is not taken too much into account; nevertheless, together with bread, it is charged with a deep and mystical feeling; it is tied to our model of living and of thinking; it forms part of a very ancient heritage. Bread was always the basic food , yet wine was something more, it was pleasure and happiness.
Wine evolves in the same way as our civilization, as much as in the question of tastes as in technical issues.
It should continue to be the companion of our daily life and the image of our civilization: we are in the era of productivity, profit and industrial equipment. It is an irreversible situation.
For the world of wine, what is really important is that the civilization of wine continues – that today, just as yesterday and as tomorrow, through the mysteries of vegetations and the miracle of fermentation, it continues to be the communion of the earth and nature with man.
Article reproduced courtesy of Wine Club Spain.
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