'Wine Future'
The much talked-about 'Wine Future' conference is taking place in Spain later this week. I'm not going (although I probably would have gone had I been invited, even if it was out of morbid curiousity).
There's a glittering speaker list, and it will draw a significant crowd of important people, but I feel lukewarm to the whole idea.
I don't think the future of the wine industry will be determined top-down by the famous people who currently 'lead' the wine industry.
Instead, I think it will come from an under-the-radar movement of dedicated winegrowers who are prepared to understand the vineyards they work with and make interesting, authentic, characterful wines.
Very few of these winegrowers would be at all interested in a conference like this. They make wine not because they want to make money, but because they have to. These new great wines are made by people who see winegrowing as their vocation. Their focus starts in the vineyard and they work as naturally as possible. Typically, they prefer large oak to small, old oak to new, and concrete to stainless steel.
I am allowed to be provocative, I would say that Winefuture is about the old wine industry. The new wine industry will emerge from the corpse of the old industry. The secret revolution is underway.
posted by Jamie @ 2:12 PM
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20 Comments:
I think I would agree with a lot of what you have said, but it is possible that the small guy will survive long enough to make a difference if those "higher up" the current decision-making tree don't start making appreciative noises today.
I will be going to the conference as both commentator (we will be live-blogging if yo are interested) and as a host at a winery, so I expect I'll see many different perspectives.
Welcome back by the way!
As a reflexive opponent of all orthodoxies and Establishments, I'd have to concur. Well said.
As person now just entering the industry, with an established vineyard that needs resurrecting, I found your blog encouraging. As new grape growers, I sincerely hope we are able to find and work, and build mutually beneficial relationships, with considerate wine producers. We've already met Chapel Down who have been very helpful.
Here here! I whole heartedly agree, with one stipulation...sometimes a conference like this can go a long ways to stirring up the current norms, or inciting those who are not there to do something different.
I for one hope to push a little at those norms, and attempt to get some new ideas in there.
I am going to the Conference also Jamie, as I was involved in getting the Aussie section of Robert Parker's Masterclass to the table so to speak. Yes, there maybe is merit in your "morbid" opinion but I am more of the view of Robert, lets give it a chance and maybe the winds of change will blow in some new, clearer, and more proactive thinking for our industry. I believe it can be viewed as a live webcast for those who desperately need to see it .....
I think it's a tough one, to argue that the shape of the wine industry will not be shaped top down by those who 'lead it'. Unfortunately, it is exactly those people - under the banner of representing their customers - that will change policy and make demands on the winemakers. Of course, it depends on the price-point and the market for the wines, but certainly for 80% of wine sold it seems to be the tail wagging the dog, and not the other way round!
However wonderful the WF appears, the whole thing still leaves me feeling uncomfortable as a large question mark remains hanging over organiser The Wine Academy. How was WA initially funded?
It's now generally accepted as fact that Mr Campo was found guilty (not a misunderstanding) of fraud in a Dubai criminal court (not a business dispute) in June 2003 and apparently did a runner using a second passport. One passport having been surrendered to the court before the criminal trial.
Was the $600k or so in question used to start up the Wine Academy?
Have any of the funding bodies (Rioja) and sponsors done any due diligence? Are they 100% certain this is not that case. I would be very interested to know, esp since public money is in the mix.
The same could be said for Vinoble and more so in my case, because I pay local taxes in Jerez.
Justin is quite right to highlight the questions that hang over Pancho Campo MW and his Wine Academy of Spain. For more than a month I have been asking him a series of question about his conviction for fraud in Dubai, how he got out before the trial and whether any of the money (640,000) involved in the conviction was used to set up The Wine Academy of Spain. Campo left Dubai in 2003 and set up the Academy the same year.
To date I have had no response to my questions. Pancho Campo was due to speak at the recent European Wine Bloggers Conference but failed to show. Avoiding answering legitimate questions?
No-one appears to know whether The Wine Academy of Spain, the owner and organiser of WineFuture Rioja09 was funded, wholly or in part, on the proceeds of fraud.
The distinguished speakers and sponsors appear not to care.
Various posting can be found on Jim's Loire including this one:
http://jimsloire.blogspot.com/2009/10/pancho-campo-mw-essence.html
More frightening while this WF-Rioja 09 conference is going on (it reminds me of elephants coming home to the graveyard), is the millions of tons of grapes left on the ground this year, the grower's in tractor brigades rolling into provincial capitals to protest, Diageo's dumping of cru classe Bordeuax, Constellation's reported selling off of a 164-year old Australian vineyard where a complex of small apartments is planned, etc.
This conference purports to enlighten attendees on how to "market" wines in this climate is really like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. And there are several potential performers in this affair auditioning for the role of Nero.
(I also highly recommend that you watch the Zev Robinson trailer for his film, Bobal & Other Wine Stories, which is really a Grapes of Wrath saga about the struggles of Bobal grape growers in Utiel-Requena. [See the Zeb Robinson article on my blog for a link to the trailer.)
As a (very) small producer of quality wines made from our own grapes grown in our own vineyard, what our great leaders say or do at WF is of absolutely no significance to us. The wine industry today is in a huge mess (of said leaders' own making, I might add) what with oversupply and falling consumption in most markets. Anyway, we are focussed on quality, terroir, etc and our niche market, even though tiny for the big boys, is enormous for us. We are passionate about what we do and are going to do it no matter what!!!
Secret revolution indeed Jamie...I agree completley. There is a lot of dust on most presenting at this event and a very dubious element to it's organiser and funding
Anon: 'very dubious element to it's organiser and funding'
Its organiser's CV is also pretty dubious participant in Barcelona Olympics, organiser of a Pink Floyd concert in Dubai (PF have never played Dubai), a Doctor of medicine (medical studies in the Dominican Republic perhaps but no record of having qualified), coach to the Qatari Davis Cup team, personally trained by Al Gore in climate change (yes, along with 200 other people in a seminar in Seville) etc.
This is "event" is a Big Yawn. I have spoken.
Hmm, if you'd been invited to speak at the event, Jamie, wonder if you'd be quite so negative?
". . .I would say that Winefuture is about the old wine industry. The new wine industry will emerge from the corpse of the old industry. The secret revolution is underway." By your leave, Jaime, I have done a post on my blog with a link to your site and your article, along with a couple of comments. Spot on, as they say, that is why some of us are calling this conference WinePast-Aragon 1999.
Given the price tag to 'attend' this event it is more a 'pig's at the trough' event looking for some back scratching and self indulgent poo poohing... what are these industry leaders going to suggest to stop the rot of 3 for 10 and persistent discounting..? doubt anything more than the obvious corporate mantra of giving the customer what they want...
Will anything of substance come from this event that will help the industry as a whole?
Not likely from looking at the program..
those that need help and insight to save their business in an every increasingly brutal market will certainly not attend.. no money to do so..
Wine Future - the title of the event should be Wine Failure as those attending can do and will do little to save those in the industry, who are the majority, and constantly get paid less and less for their grapes as the big retailers become ever more greedy for profit...
As for PC - some in MW have got behind him in support of his character.. maybe they should have looked at some of the evidence first, a crook and a thief it appears.. Someone needs to take a stand and ensure he does not do the same to the wine producers of Spain - although rumour has it that what he (or the Wine Scamademy) charges wineries, or DO's for that matter, for wine presentations is tantamount to theft already.. He has made this whole event a joke...
Looking at the topics page for the Congress, this looks more like a conference about selling wine rather than making it. Which makes it a conference of the giants, for the giants. My guess is the giants will always be with us. The question for the future is how much they'll matter. Look at the beer business: Yes, there's SAB/Miller and InBev/Anheuser-Busch--they're giants, but who cares about their products?
Leaving 'Doctor' Campo aside for the moment I agree with Jamie that the majority of the world's most interesting wines are being made by smaller producers not represented by the giants at the conference.
Whether WineFuture is really winepast and a dinosaurs' graveyard as some have maintained remains to be seen.
I will attend the conference (was fortunate to receive an invitation from one of the sponsors) but can't help but agree that most of the speakers represent the past and present of the industry and are unlikely to lead wine where it needs to go in the future. I was disappointed to not see more emphasis put on social networking.
Ryan: put the pedal to the metal!
Isnīt Gary Vaynerchuk speaking at the conference? Iīd say he had a pretty good future in the wine industry.
I will be tweeting and blogging from the conference as will many others - isnīt that the new face of wine communications?
Letīs not rain on its parade when it hasnīt even started. It might be pricy but the hotels and restaurants of Logrono are full so it canīt have put off too many people and itīs good for the region.
If you can offer a better conference, I will gladly come along.
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