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| 𝅘𝅥𝅰 Don’t bother they’re here 𝅘𝅥𝅰 |
When I look at the “inside
baseball” world of wine writing lately, I want to puke. It is as if this
little manufactured bubble, which displays little if anything of a natural
reality, exists for the simple reason that folks need something to hang onto in
regard to the way they identify themselves in the world. Apart from the
artifice, the performativity, the virtuousness and the constant scuffling for
the top rung, where are the stories? What happened to the story tellers?
I think about photography often when arguments over “art” and
technology become heated. In the 1830s, when photography was born, painters
were outraged. Here was this imitator, this mechanical intruder, muscling in on
what they’d decided art was. Give it a century, though, and we got an Ansel
Adams, a Diane Arbus – as different from each other as Monet was from Kandinsky
– and nobody was arguing anymore about whether photography was or wasn’t art.
Then digital cameras arrived and the film shooters lost their minds over this
new usurper. Now digital is as good, technically, maybe better, at making art
than film ever was. And here comes AI, and once again everybody’s hair is on
fire. I often heard this line from a wine colleague of mine, Guy Stout. He
loved to say, “It ain’t the wand, it’s the magician.” I took those words to
heart. In the same way – AI is a wand – it sure as hell ain’t my magician. It’s
a tool, a prop, a pillow to cry on, even – but it is not the story teller we
need – we still need the humans, the magicians, to saddle up to the campfire
and spin the tale.
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| Spellcheck: There’s no “AI” in Guy |
So there’s that. It’s nothing new. It’s the same argument,
dressed up for the latest unsuspecting and upcoming generation. The tool
changes but the panic rears its ugly head once again. And it’s never really
about the tool – it’s about who has the loudest megaphone to calm us/rile us up
while the earth trembles ever so repeatedly.
There is also the general dearth of good storytelling out
there. In my freelance writing for Dallas’ flagship monthly magazine, D, (think
New York magazine with a slight twang) I’ve gone for short form storytelling
while also informing people of trends or unseen gems in my orbit – a neighborhood
grocery store worth building a shopping list around, a manufactured
coastline worth calling out – they’ve been well received, and gotten
good traffic, and while that wasn’t my sole objective, it offers a critical
metric which is the needed oxygen for today’s online world.
I can see why so many folks who lay a claim to being a wine
writer are lamenting that their platforms have all but been abandoned by
people, who a mere 10 or 15 years ago, flocked to the sites in copious amounts,
inhaling and ravishing any little tidbit of vinous information, in search of a
good glass of wine. It used to be better. Now it’s gotten murky and cloudy and
stifling. No wonder the wine mavens now all talk at and past each other – most
everyone has left the room years ago.
When did it become a bloody dog-eat-dogmatic world? Or better yet,
why‽
I’m gonna throw some diesel on the bonfire I’ve already
started and state out front that there are too many people trying to monetize
their writing and it has caused a huge fragmentation among the readers – they
simply cannot afford it in economic terms, and further they do not have the
attention bandwidth to absorb and digest all the information that the wine
writing community produces‽ There have been several folks
who have done a cost analysis, if one were to subscribe to all the major
publications and then add the top 10-20 fee-based Substack sites. It’s
thousands of dollars a year, not to mention the time it would take to go through
all of the material. If it were worth it.
And it doesn’t look like many people are saying it is worth it
these days. Look, no one wants to work for free. But a blog, like mine, for
instance, while it is free to the readers who come to it weekly for the past 20
years, it does act like a billboard for my writing style and subjects and it
does lead to paying gigs. Do I need the money? Well, I do have my vices – I really
like to play around with photography equipment – and that can get expensive at
times. But I also use that equipment to augment my writing and it has brought
me income streams as well. So, while I do not depend upon writing for a living,
and while I do understand there are folks out there who would like to support
themselves, solely, with their writing, I know (as they do) that there are only
a few who actually make enough money to support themselves in a fairly comfortable
lifestyle setting. Like actors or artists or athletes, there is only so much
room at the top. Do I like that? Well, if I had my druthers, I’d love to see
more folks sharing the limelight and the financial rewards. But the market
drives those metrics.
I was in sales. Reluctantly. My dad was a salesman. And a good
one. But it just didn’t feel like my jam. I did, however, make a study of it
and didn’t do too badly at it. But what the commercial world taught me was that
there is competition and if you don’t find a way to compete, you get left
behind to wail and flail in the wind. Get in and get in the game or get out. I
think that might be similar in the writing world. And in the uber-scrunchy
miniscule world of wine writing, there are even fewer angels dancing on the
head of that pin. Meanwhile in today’s open-media landscape, folks put up a
Substack or a WordPress (or a Blogger!) and, like the town criers we all are,
peel off and let ‘er rip. And this is where we have landed now, in 2026.
* * * * *
All this has made me thirsty. We’re finally getting a break in
the 100°F weather here in North Texas. Haven’t had rain in months. I can hardly
wait for the weather to cool even more, so I can make my Eggplant Parmigiana
for Rocco. That’s what I am looking forward to – opening a good bottle of
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo to go with the Parmigiana and sharing the food (not the
wine) with man’s best friend, my dog.
And dogma be doggoned, just for a blessed moment.
wine blog + Italian wine blog + Italy W
