Posted on 09/10/2020 2:25:34 PM PDT by Kaslin
A recent article from the San Francisco Chronicle cast wine professionals in a rather unflattering light and asserted that certain practices of sommeliers and wine journalists were actually racist. The author insisted that tasting terminology used by sommeliers and wine writers leaned too heavily on European influence and catered only to those of European heritage.
The author Esther Mobley, who is credited as the San Francisco Chronicle's wine critic, explains how she came to the conclusion that wine tasting terminology is racist and sexist to boot.
Wine language is so often absurd that it’s a punchline. Notes of smoldering tobacco or forest underbrush or underripe Jonagold apple — it sounds almost farcical in its specificity. Even worse is when the descriptor is inedible. How many people have actually tasted a wet river stone, anyway?
But now, it’s becoming clearer than ever that the conventional language used to describe wine isn’t merely intimidating and opaque. It’s also inextricable from racism and sexism, excluding dimensions of flavor that are unfamiliar to the white, Western cultures that dominate the world of fine wine and reinforcing retrograde notions of gender.
For years, I worked in this industry as both a sommelier, certified by the famed Court of Master Sommeliers, and as a wine journalist. And from experience, I can say the learning curve to get to the summit of wine professionalism is staggering for anyone, regardless of their ethnicity or country of origin.
But far from racist or sexist, the wine industry is actually a bastion for inclusion and equal opportunity. Any person, from any background, can achieve the greatest success in the wine expert field as long as they are willing to put the work in. It is not limited only to those born into a wealthy family; it is not limited only to those with expensive graduate degrees and it certainly excludes no person based on their biological sex or race.
It is not, however, easy, under any circumstances. I didn't grow up in a wine family or among the great vineyards of Europe. I fell in love with the idea of wine tasting in my twenties while working as a server in a restaurant, a job widely acknowledged to be one of the lowest skill requirement professions available.
Despite my western European ancestry, as Mobley implied, I wasn't privy to most of the flavors and aromas more tenured wine pros were describing to me. Instead of slamming down my tasting glass and proclaiming the learning process "unfair," however, I went out and figured out what some of this stuff tasted and smelled like. It turned out, that wasn't particularly hard. And I learned to be a good cook in the process.
It was a years-long venture that forced me to create new methods of learning and required me to stay constantly curious. It was anything but a smooth ride given to me on a platter; but if it had been easy, it wouldn't have been worth the effort. Despite having left the industry some years ago, receiving my Certified Sommelier pin after years of studying, tasting, failing, and repeating remains one of my proudest personal achievements.
Former colleagues of mine from even more varied backgrounds, including one African American man who confided in me once the hellacious circumstances of his childhood, have become some of the most celebrated sommeliers in the world. It truly is a remarkable profession and achievement is only limited by the amount of God-given talent and hard work a person is willing to put in it, nothing else.
But Mobley and others want us to believe the system is rigged against people based only on their sex or skin color. This is bigotry by the standard of lowered expectations: to insist that a person could only succeed in an industry if it is modified to suit them.
Recently, the very same organization that acknowledged my hard work and that of many others, came under fire from Black Lives Matter activists for their use of the word "Master" in conjunction with the top title given out by the group. The term obviously appears in the very name of the organization, the Court of Master Sommeliers, and any assertion of racism for use of that title is obviously absurd.
For a profession such as wine, sexism is very easily eradicated by simply saying that only those with the right qualifications can reach the summit. There are many parts to a sommelier certificate test: tasting ability, knowledge of vintages and regions, and service standards. But there is no test on whether the applicant is a man or a woman or whether they are white or black. The fact that there are more white, male Master Sommeliers than any other category points only toward the fact that the profession seems to have been more alluring to white men than any other group.
Calling "Racism" and "Sexism" on any industry that doesn't have the right intersectional quota is outrageously unfair, particularly for an industry that has its door wide open to any person, regardless of wealth, race, sex, or any other factor.
At a time where the restaurant industry and the wine profession is hurting more than they ever have in this country, attempting to create a strawman of bigotry and oppression instead of looking for real solutions for the hospitality industry is utterly shameful.
The left is always whining...
I can’t remember the last time I thought, “The US needs more wine jobs.”
Wine Careers or Wine Carafes?
And as for "white wines"...
Being in an orchesra.
The list ls endless
Aren’t they, the Color Cultists, still trying to change the centuries old game of Chess? You know, where experts are Masters and ‘w’hite moves first?
Sound and fury and a lousy sounding brass!
excellent piece
South Africa is ok....
I*n order to be an inclusive sommelier I must develop a palate for different brands of 40s of malt liquor.
While I don’t have a wine cellar I am a conasour of the type box my wine is encased.
The experts I used to consult lived in some dilapidated mobile homes and they had old mattresses and stuff out front propped up against trees where they sat around and drink their Boone’s Farm. And every now and then we would drive over there and give a member of this wino club a ride up to the local convenience store so they could buy us a few bottles of “the farm” and then we would give them a bottle of Boone’s Farm and be on our merry way...
I have always thought the wine tasting crowd was too hoity toity for my taste. A southern white boy who grew up with modest means has little tolerance for snot-nosed, condescending, snobby behavior.
That being said, I drink wine because beer runs my blood sugar up. Don’t drink liquor much any more. Don’t much like those wines that are too sweet or fruity. Those I like are usually reds - cabernet,burgandy, pinot or merlot . . . simply because they are smooth and taste good, not because they are touted to have tastes that have a “hint” of this or that flavor. I doubt those snobs could pass a blind “Coke or Pepsi” test.
Most of the time, for every day, I drink Carlo Rossi Burgandy out of a gallon jug.
European culture itself is racist and needs to go away. The left won’t be satisfied until there is a full-scale ethnic cleansing of all people connected to western civilization.
The only wines that would be allowed are Ripple, Boone’s Farm, and Mad Dog 20/20
Heck, I haven’t had a Colt 45 Malt Liquor since HS in the early 60s.
Yeah, Rossi Blush is another good one. Hard to find around here sometimes, though. Cheap buzz.
I remember an episode of Sanford and Son where Fred creates a new drink. In that classic Redd Foxx raspy voice, “I mixed Champagne and Ripple. I call it SHAMPIPPLE!”
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