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The Human Factor in Wine

Written By: Brian Freedman on Friday, December 14, 2007

I recently returned from a trip to Piemonte, and was struck yet again, as I am every time I visit a major wine region, by the human factor in wine. This is not a statement of the obvious: Too often these days we dehumanize wines, drinking them in the vacuum of blind tastings, scoring them as we would any other commodity. And while I am the first person to admit the necessity of this - with prices rising, and with so many bottles lining the shelves, all of them vying for our attention and money, there has to be some way to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff.

I do think that it’s equally important, once we have considered the wines on their own merits, to look at them for what they are: The product of man’s interaction with whatever nature has thrown him that particular year. It is also the product of one person’s vision: Angelo Gaja and Pio Boffa in Piemonte, Dan Goldfield and Gary Farrell in Sonoma - these people are craftsmen and artists at the top of their games, and their wines express just as much about them as they do the land from which they come. In fact, the best wines, it seems to me, reflect the idiosyncrasies and history of their region as well as the vision of the winemaker. To that end, there is no more educational experience than visiting a wine region, tasting the wines, and speaking with the men and women who are responsible for that fabulous juice in the bottle. That, beyond all the hyperbole and analysis, is what it’s all about: The human factor.

Until next time... Cheers!

Brian Freedman

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