Drink
Aw, shucks
by Keith Stewart
As I’m a fully blooded member of the international New World wine mafia, it is not exactly PC for me to write nice things about France in a New Zealand drinks column – but then I have never been much of an enthusiast for political correctness. And whatever you believe about the French, they do know how to enjoy a glass of wine. In our questing for recognition of our new-found wine culture, we sometimes forget this.
So maybe it was not surprising that the French-owned wine company previously known as Montana held a function for the pure pleasure of it. Yes, the media were there, and most of the main players in the trade, but there was also a large posse of Bluff oysters being shucked by the oyster sheriff and some stunning Kapiti goats’ cheese in large rounds to keep the fresh-from-the-tanks 2006 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc company.
There was a time when Montana did not do anything unless it was deadly serious, but the culture at the big company, which is now known as Pernod Ricard Wines New Zealand, has changed somewhat, and this event was a celebration of something worth celebrating: the latest vintage of our signature wine. Oysters, cheese, dry white, aromatic wine and a crowd of people having a jolly time. This is exactly what attracts most people to a wine culture. So why is it so rare?
Maybe the answer lies in our British roots and the Anglo-snobbery that infects the UK concept of wine. Maybe it is our obsession with having the rest of the world see us as practical. Or maybe it is just that we do not know how to have fun.
Whatever the truth is, we still have much to learn from the Old World, where respect for good wine is generously given, where the best bottle is invariably the one with the cork out, where pretentious drinkers call for Russian vodka or Scotch whisky; a collection of countries where they celebrate the end of harvest because it is a time of joy and the creation of something special.
But if your Rainbow Warrior conscience gives you trouble with things French, think on this: champagne, the most French of all wines, is at risk of being contaminated by a nuclear-waste dump that is leaking radioactivity into the Champagne aquifer. Glow-in-the-dark fizz? Who says poetic justice is a romantic myth?
Email: keith@sommnet.com
