Life today is much different from in the past as a new era is truly beginning. Today, most people look toward the future instead of the past, especially our technology driven future. As technology alters our world every day, we depend on mobile phones, email, instant messaging, and online social networking. The world is always on the brink of dramatic innovation today and it even affects winemaking. This article looks at the future for wine.
Purchasing Wine
New trends in the wine business relate to these larger themes. The first trend that comes to mind is that the corner store is no longer the only place where you can buy wine or any other product. You can purchase wine from a wine club because you can browse the internet. You might order a random wine in a restaurant and decide that you want more. So you contact the winery directly, because its email address is on the back label — and if it isn’t, no worries. You Google the winery name and ask them to send you a few bottles, bypassing both the corner store and the wholesaler who sells wine to the owner.
The same situation occurs in the music business when you download a CD or even in a shoe store. If the store is out of your shoe size, you go to the manufacturer’s website and order the shoe there. In other words, the way goods are distributed is changing. Buying direct from manufacturers will probably accelerate as cheaper and more efficient transportation technologies develop. The corner store will remain with an altered product line, but the current owners could also decide to move their business online.
Wine Grape Farming
Wine grape farming is undergoing transition as more and more wineries choose to farm organically or biodynamically. This is the ultimate system of sustainable agriculture because literally everything that grows on the property is recycled in the same location. Each farm, like the globe itself, nurtures diverse plants and animals and is self-contained albeit with scientific help in the form of monitoring plant and soil health. This farming movement is diametrically opposite to giant, centralized, chemically-dependent, mono-culture farms that represented innovation in the past. Such mega farms depended on crude oil prices around $ 15 a barrel so that transporting crops from huge farms across the country was economically viable. The far-reaching consequences of chemical contamination and exhausted soil were unknown then.
A World Of Wine
Redeveloping local agriculture is once again a viable model as almost every state in the U.S. now makes wine. While California has been doing it the longest, all the others are finding their way toward competence and excellence. New grape varieties will likely emerge in the near future, especially as wine club associations thrive with new members looking for new, unique wines. From the time that the new plant grips the soil, grows up, relinquishes its first viable crop that is then fermented into wine and placed on a table, time passes, five years at the very least. Twenty years ago, the French varieties Pinot Noir and Syrah were the new enthusiasms of winemakers. Today, they are mainstream as are Italian wine grapes like Pinot Grigio and to a lesser extent Sangiovese and Barbera. Now the talk is about Spanish varieties, especially the noble Tempranillo.
One thing is certain. It won’t be wine that will be making our heads spin in the future. It’ll be the pace of change itself.