About one year ago, I invited the wine professional, wine and marketing consultant Priscilla Hennekam from Australia, to talk about The Challenges of Wine Language on my show, Wines of Italy LiveStream. I decided to republish it as the topic is as current as ever.
My idea was to discuss how language changes over time, so also the wine language, and how there is a need for a more inclusive language right now. Objective wine tasting and analysis do have certain rules and parameters to follow that are taught in sommelier, WSET courses, etc., but that does not mean that we all need to limit ourselves to the quite narrow language used within those parameters.
There are many ways to analyze or describe a wine, it does not have to be limited to one set of vocabulary. Wine does, furthermore, not have to be reduced to certain repetitive tasting notes.
There can be many connotations, meanings associated with wine. And, should not wine be about enjoyment and experience? It ought to be about listening to the taster/consumer and letting them experience the wine in their own way. This does not mean that wine professionals cannot be a support to give input when needed, without imposing their own opinions.
The need for an evolved wine language is linked to a more open-minded wine industry that embraces change and innovation. We need to listen more to our consumers and understand their wants and needs in order to overcome declining sales and attract younger generations.
The conversation covers…
…challenges in the wine market, including declining sales and the younger generation’s disinterest in traditional wines. We both agree that the industry must adapt by focusing on consumer engagement rather than overwhelming them with technical details. We advocate for a more humble approach that emphasizes storytelling, experience, and connection. Priscilla also shares her insights on what she sees as the lack of flexibility in traditional wine education and the importance of innovation in maintaining the industry’s future relevance.
The episode concludes with a thoughtful look at the future of wine marketing and the potential for positive change.
A linguistic parentesis
On the website of Master of Wine Tim Atkins, Dariusz Galasiński, a linguist and professor at the University of Wroclaw in Poland, talks about the importance of the context and the point of view in the article Different Wine Talk. He divides the wine language discourse into Who speaks?, Contexts, the Message, Who do elite writers talk to?, and Point of view.
He argues, and righteously so, that elite wine writers are a small group of people who in no way dominate the discourse. Rather, it is the ‘dilettantes‘, as he writes, the consumers, who are steering the conversations, and that wine writers should rather listen to them.
The context is important as the wine language changes for different situations. Furthermore, the message and its clarity are crucial to speak to the needs of the readers, i.e., the everyday consumers. This is often not the case, according to Dariusz Galasiński. He continues to say
The words and phrases are not exclusionary, I know them all. The issue is more that they are bent into descriptions that, I think, have no reference point in the known universe. And so, I continue not to know what dignified wine is, or precise, or pretty, or muscular, let alone feminine or masculine. And while I often doubt the writers themselves actually know what those descriptors mean, I think they require a subscription to the unspoken nonsense contract.
I agree with him that there is a need for more clarity in how wine writers use the language, but above all, to be explicit in who they are talking to. The structure of the language and communication theory, with concepts such as the sender’s intentions, the context, the relation to the referent, etc., matters for a successful communication model. (See literary theorists such as Saussure and Roman Jakobson)
Livestream sequences:
- 00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
- 00:21 Guest Background and Business Overview
- 02:29 Challenges in the Wine Industry
- 05:21 Consumer Engagement and Education
- 14:27 Innovation in the Wine Industry
- 30:12 Italian Wines in Australia
- 35:55 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
