On Friday, I took part in an interesting conference in Bordeaux, organized by closure manufacturer Diam. The audience was a group of Bordeaux wine growers, and the panel consisted of some well known wine communicators from across Europe. We were discussing the influencers – past, present and future – in the world of wine.
The panel is pictured above. From left to right, Bernard Burtschy, Ian d’Agata, Peter Moser, me, Ronald de Groot, Siwei Zhao and Michel Bettane. On the far right is Alain Marty, who chaired the discussion really well, keeping us all to strict time with the assistance of an egg-timer.
Not surprisingly, as we were in Bordeaux, Robert Parker was the subject of a lot of discussion. What comes after him? Also a focus of debate was the role of the internet, and bloggers in particular. Do they have any influence? How much has the internet changed things?
Francois Mauss, of the Grand Jury Europeen, was filming proceedings, and here are a few segments. There are more on his youtube page, which you can access via the videos.
Peter Moser and Jean-Luc Thunevin at lunch
Laurent Cogombles of Chateau Bouscaut
6 Comments on Diam Rendezvous, Bordeaux: the influencers in the world of wine
How do you feel about Diam Jamie?
I’ve never had a bad bottle; is there a downside that you know of?
smartest i have ever seen you look 🙂
Jamie – some really interesting stuff here. In particular about wine communication and specialisation. Exciting to see how the wine world is changing.
Hope this conference was interesting.
The bad thing : organized by Diam which is not a good closure for wines.
Only 60% corks and 40% chimical (microspheres, acrylonytrile, …)
It is impossible to imagine a good wine with this closure after few years.
Be sure the tasting, the arômes, will not at the level of the wine … imagined at the beginning.
Of course I prefer 100% corks.
R.e. Diam, I’ve never seen a downside. Regarding latapie’s comment, the closure seems to last well. It has been used for ages. Its predecessor, Altec, had a TCA flaw, but in terms of its mechanical integrity, there are 15 year old bottles sealed with it and it still looks OK. After all, plastics seem to be remarkably durable (regrettably so for the environment – it takes hundreds of years for them to break down), and so the presence of non-cork material isn’t necessarily a terrible thing.
Hi Jamie,
I’m very glad meeting you in this conference. Actually the Chinese sharing his opinion with you on the stage is my colleague Mr. Xiang GAO, not Siwei ZHAO. Hope you can correct this typo. Thank you very much.
Hope to see you soon.