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| It’s not a good idea to dip your toe into the slipstream of internet comments about something that is controversial and that you care a great deal about, whether it be Facebook or a piece from the New York Times. But I have done just that over the past few weeks when I see posts regarding the proposed 100 percent tariffs on European wine so that I may gauge how other people, especially those who are not in the wine trade, are thinking and feeling about this issue. To be clear, and I state this with zero hyperbole, the tariffs will if enacted be a disaster for many of my friends in the trade. I expect to see many of them out of business within a few months if the tariffs go forward, and it feels like watching someone who is drowning, and you cannot do a damn thing about it. A common comment I have seen is “drink American!” as if drinking European wine is somehow un-American, and yet us appreciators of European wine are every bit as American as those who do not care for it. I sell wine from Europe and the United States, but mostly from Europe because I like the wines. I am simply plying a trade and indulging in a preference that has a long and honorable history in our country, dating back to the colonial era. Us Americans drink European wines because we like them, and do not feel any compulsion or requirement to justify why we do. We just do. And we appreciate drinking them in our country where we have the liberty to do so. So tonight, we’re pouring four skin-contact, orange wines from the Old World because we like European orange wines, and hope that you do, too. Four wines, four countries, with macerations ranging from ten days to 9 months, and wines ranging from the mineral and somber side of the spectrum to the fleshier and more aromatic.
Vignoble du Rêveur Vin de France 2018 (extended maceration gewurztraminer + pinot gris) |