If I read any wine magazine at all, it’s Decanter. This month’s issue has "Wines Top 50: The Power List," of "who’s shaping the wine you drink."

  There are a couple points of interest about their little list.

  1). While 30 people on the list are CEOs, Prezzies, or other figureheads, there is only one winemaker on the list. (3 if you stoop to count consulting winemakers)

  2). There is only one person under 40 on the list, Jean-Charles Boisset, and his family’s brand is one of the largest in France.

  3). The average, mean, and median age of list members is 59 years old.

  Now, granted Decanter is a Brit rag and is prone to be more traditional in its wine leanings. But this list still saddens me. With seven wine writers on the list averaging an above average 63 years of age, is it any wonder why young French and British teens turn more towards cocktails and beer???? Who on this list speaks to them? This is the perfect example of the self-perpetuating stereotype/feedback loop with which the wine industry is choking itself.

  This isn’t about age–Michael Broadbent’s the coolest guy on the list, and he’s 78. It’s about the who’s driving the car. Businessmen. That’s who’s driving it all these days. And if we’re not careful, most of the wine people experience will be no different than Coca Cola. It’s already happening.

  Let me use an analogy. Imagine if all the old, rich studio heads had all the control in the movie industry, and it was all about the box office. All you’d get is one empty-headed smash ‘em up, swiss cheese action movie after another. Oh wait, that’s actually pretty much what’s happening.

  Without the indies, where would the soul come from? Where is everone’s sense of outrage?

  Fermentation good. Homogenization bad.