The three key words for the last 25 years in wine may be these: information, abundance, and change.
Coming into the new millennium, restaurant wine lists still concentrated on the classic regions; the words “organic,” “biodynamic,” and “natural” wine were whispers at best; no one (to the point where it was deemed impossible to sell) was drinking dry rosé; and the term “sommelier” — rarely if ever uttered — drew an image of some haughty French fellow with a tastevin around his neck (always his neck) who made you feel like a dolt for not knowing … well, really anything about wine.
It’s always hard to unthread the connections that drive change. In part, the word “sommelier” bopped into public consciousness thanks to the 2012 movie Somm (basically Hoop Dreams for wine geeks). But that movie would have probably never been made without the 2004 success of Sideways (i.e., Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid for wine geeks, minus the heroes being shot to pieces at the end). Nor without the growth in interest about wine, largely fueled by the vast availability of information available, particularly on smartphones (first iPhone: 2007).
Knowledge is also power — a cliché, but true — and that expanded availability freed up wine from the clutches of experts. These days, younger wine drinkers are more likely to buy based on recommendations from friends (or “friends”) than because some bottle got a 95-point score from some guy who I’m supposed to trust because, why?
The resulting abundance to meet the demands of more eager and engaged consumers has become wildly apparent: more wine, more wine drinkers, more knowledge, more categories, more countries, more grape varieties, just more. It’s been quite a ride these two-and-a-half-decades.
Today, there are rumblings in the clear skies: climate change, a neo-prohibitionist movement, protectionist tariffs, the allure of alternative intoxicants like cannabis. Worrisome, yes, but wine has been made for 8,000 years. A lot may change in the next 25 years, but have no doubt: wine will still be here.
Everything, everywhere, all at once
Starting with the new millennium, a nascent trend became the new reality: Wines from everywhere, not just from the most famous regions in the most famous countries, became readily available, particularly on restaurant wine lists but also in stores. Hankering to try a Slovenian Rebula or a Blaufränkisch from Austria? Now you can without flying overseas.
Attack of the critter labels
Yellow Tail started this trend, led it, and eventually supplied more than half of all Australian wine imports to the U.S. These bright and often attractively priced bottlings made wine feel as affordable and easy-drinking as beer.
It also spawned a raft of four-legged or two-winged competitors: Little Penguin, Monkey Bay, Four Emus, Tall Horse, and more. Many of whom, thankfully, have passed on to the great wine zoo in the sky.
Screw caps are the new cool
Screw caps for inexpensive (i.e., jug) wines had been around a long time. But it took a gang of pissed-off Australian winemakers led by legendary Riesling producer Jeffrey Grosset, tired of their wines being pointlessly damaged by natural corks, to get the idea into people’s heads that high-end wines — in fact, all wines — could benefit from screw cap closures.
The side effect? Faced with competition, the cork industry cleaned up its act and modernized quality control. Today, incidences of cork taint are far lower than back in the early 2000s.
Pinot Noir and the ‘Sideways’ effect
A little movie about two pals on a wine trip down the Central Coast of California had one major impact on wine: it made Pinot Noir cool. Dubbed the “Sideways Effect,” sales of Pinot in the U.S. increased 16% in the three years following the movie. In California, production increased 170% (compared to an 8% increase for wine grape production overall) to keep up with the demand.
Biodynamic wine arrives
Biodynamic farming (not just for wine) was already a passion in Europe pre-2004. Its inflection point in the U.S., however, was French winemaker Nicolas Joly’s first “Return to Terroir” tasting in New York City. It introduced some of the world’s most influential sommeliers and wine buyers to the far-reaching diversity and quality of wineries following this somewhat outré approach. Lots of talk about burying cow horns by the light of the full moon ensued.
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