Rustic Elegance ?

There is surely no question that in the vocabulary used to describe wines the word “rustic” is prejorative and the word ‘elegant” is favorable. I think these terms are commonly thought to mean the opposite of each other. But closer examination indicates they should not.

First, let’s just establish that elegance has nothing to do with the weight of the wine. Being described as elegant does not prohibit a wine from also being powerful and full bodied.  Chateau Latour (admittedly not a heavyweight) may appropriately be described as elegant. So may a Barolo at 14.5% alcohol. Equally, a lighter weight wine is not elegant simply because it has lighter body.  “Elegance” has nothing to do with scale of the wine. It just means “graceful” or “stylish”, both words hard further to define affirmatively. But having grace or style I associate with not being clumsy or heavy footed or ponderous. There is perhaps a sense of ease and self confidence and effortlessness.

The word “rustic” is most commonly used to convey that the wine just isn’t sophisticated. Confusingly, in common speech, the term “rustic” is associated with being rural or from the countryside - thus impliedly lacking in sophistication.  A wine so described may lack nuance, but that surely doesn’t mean the wine necessarily lacks style or even grace. Why could a wine not have a certain country elegance or country style ? Style is not limited to mean sophistication. Kermit Lynch lately put out a marketing piece emphasizing a particular wine’s “rustic charm”.

So the adjectives “elegant” and “rustic” are not strictly the opposite of each other in meaning. Perhaps a wine could at the same time be both rustic and elegant.  There is surely such thing as “country elegance” and “country charm”.

I would like to see less use by wine critics of the term “rustic” in descriptions given to wines - especially when they are used broadly. The word not only is completely damning of the wine - who wants a rustic wine or a wine with rustic tannins - but the word also has quite a wide range of possible meanings. Why not be more specific and say “unsophisticated” or “lacking in nuance” or “lacking in refinement” or or even just “simple”.

The picture is simply a wall of a farmhouse that might properly be described as ‘rustic” in the prejorative sense