The Obsession with Newness

This post is a bit of a rant.

America is obsessed with newness. We love everything about it.

It is natural enough that the focus of critics and reviewers is on the current release vintage. These are the wines that need to be sold in the moment. These are the reviews the critics need to have be read in order to get paid. And, perhaps as importantly, these are the only wines that are available to be purchased, all prior vintages having been long since disappeared from the shelves. But I am struck by how quickly and how completely the previous vintage passes into distant memory, supplanted by the desire to taste the very latest.

It is valuable of course to get a read on the new vintage - its style and which growers may have excelled in that particular year. It is completely appropriate that these are the wines that are tasted at events. 

And I fully concede it is difficult for an entity looking to arrange tastings to access wines of prior vintages when wanting to do themed events - for example that illustrate the different terroirs of Burgundy’s villages or the impact of older vines or the inclusion of stems in the winemaking process.. The current release - or perhaps a year or two prior - are the only wines available if the organizer wants to get the wines he wants to explore the theme optimally. Unless the customer is willing to pay very high prices indeed to attend such events, he simply has to accept that the vintages presented will be very recent. It is a market, after all.

But I think simply by the media and promotional agencies putting so very much focus on the current release vintage the consumer is inevitably given a disproportionately favorable view of that vintage when compared with prior years.  Context is lost. And fresh fruit always tastes so good. There is I believe an upward bias to critic’s scores given to new release wines, as I have written in an earlier post. And those aggressively selling wine of course pick the most favorable review of the vintage - or indeed of a particular wine - so it only takes one critic of repute to take a positive “bet” on the quality of the current release for that to be the one most commonly thrust infront of the consumer. One is led to believe one will be missing out if one doesn’t purchase the current vintage - "a vintage not to be missed”….”deserves a place in your cellar”…or even quite directly ”don’t miss it !” The full force of the marketing industry is brought to bear to promote the current release vintage.

Some collecting experience I suppose ameliorates this obsession with the newest vintage. Having seen it all before helps. One realizes that most vintages today are very good and what distinguishes them is their style more than their absolute quality, which differences in style some also argue lessen over time anyway.  It no doubt helps too that you already have some quantity of wine stashed away from previous years. For example, I bought almost nothing in Burgundy in vintage 2018 because I already have plenty of wine. I haven’t actually tasted many 2018s so any assertion I make about some critics being overly bullish on its quality is completely baseless.  But I don’t think the style of the vintage is my kind of style - so I am comfortable more or less taking a pass. 

Some measured calm is in order. Truly great vintages - that really ought not be missed - come rarely indeed. The American culture loves newness. There are no “good old days” in America. But let us not forget that all vintages were new once. 

And the next vintage comes so very soon…