I still seem to attract more readers who feel the need to vent on email instead of commenting directly on the site. Boy do I get some nasty email. I’d love you guys to just post it. If not, I will go ahead and start sharing it. It’s not hard to comment. If you don’t want to give your email address, just do what I do: use johnny@hotmail.com. Recent emails about my post on this post about Chianti a few days back:

“…accusations mean nothing without proof. Sometimes you wine snaob(sic) sound just like music snobs. You seem to hate anything that makes money….” A. Taylor, Oak Park, IL

“I think the laws of European wine countries are hopelessly outdated. They cling to heritage falsely. You were too young to have some of the poor excuses for Chianti in the 1970’s. Nothing to envy I assure you. Progress and countries like Australia will leave Italy in the dust if they continue to be obsessed by such things. …” M. Feegus Seattle, WA

“So? If you want wine to be more popular, you have to make more. … Beer is popular because you can find the beer you like easily. Why should wine be any different then? …” R. Kershaw, Atlanta, GA

1) Don’t compare me to an indie rock girl. Ever. Them’s fighten words.
2) Whoa. Whoa. Obsessed by…quality, you mean? Whoa.
3) Hey! Did he just “so” me? That’s my line.

This has nothing to do with snobbery. Let me explain it again to the Americans who don’t seem to grasp the concept of an agricultural product coming from a certain place having a certain taste. This ain’t Eurocentric; it’s true. I know we’re used to the magical grocery store gnomes that just shit crappy fruits and vegetables on a weekly schedule. I know that Bud Light is always in stock wherever you go. But I don’t know how many times I have to shout it from the mountain top that WINE IS NOT BEER!

Why should wine be any different? Because it is. Some wine, anyway. And I was talking about Chianti in particular, with a wine tradition older than goddamn America. It is made from a crop of grapes. You can make vodka from any starch. You can always buy more grain to make beer. But you pick these grapes once. Each year you get what Mama Nature gives you. And in some places, like Chianti….Mama Nature has consistently delivered a beautiful harvest, leading to tasty wines that have the distinct signature of that area. Over time–100s of years–the people of these regions have learned where grapevines should go. And that means something.

This concept of place is no different than the perfect Oregon strawberry, Maine blueberry, or Florida Key Lime. But the issue here is letting people see and think about the difference between factory made wine from bulk juice and a wine that is a product of the land. Look at it as the difference between a bloated, flavorless, January pale beefsteak tomato just for the sake of having a tomato vs. the juicy sweet mater out of your garden. I would rather be tomato deprived, dreaming of September, than suffer a grainy, watery, pathetic excuse of a vegetable.

Do you think that’s snobbery that I ask for the quality that a label promises?

Then I ask you why you feel you deserve so little?

And with that, I say good day, sir.