Brilliant article from the recent issue of Wine Spectator written by Matt Kramer (winespectator.com):

Recently I found myself in one of those wine wrangles that, truth to tell, I usually try to avoid. (Check out any wine chat board on the Internet if you've got a taste^? for this sort of thing.)
 
The wrangle was with, natch, a winemaker^?, while at a social event. It involved the winemaker's assertion that "fine wine is art." I pointed out, as modestly as I could, that there's no denying that nature surely doesn't make wine on its own, let alone fine wine (vinegar^? is more like it). I then went on to say that fine wine is, at best, a high craft both in the vineyard^? and the cellar^?.
 
Probably, if I had stopped there, the discussion would have proved amicable. But I took the matter one step further. (You're shocked, I know.) I submitted that saying that winemaking, and therefore its result, is "art" was self-aggrandizing. You can imagine how that was received.
 
Now, I admit that the self-aggrandizing bit was a low blow. Still, it's true. If winemakers can get you, me and, especially, their employers to see them as artists, you know what'll happen: Their salaries will rise, and producers, for their part, will start pricing wine as "art." And you know what that means.
 
So why isn't fine wine "art"? The answer is surprisingly simple. Art is creation; wine is amplification. The big^? difference between an artist and a winemaker is that an artist starts with a blank sheet while a winemaker works with the exact opposite. A grape arrives at the winery^? with all the parts included, a piñata stuffed with goodies, just waiting to be cracked open.
 
Is there a craft to doing that? You bet there is. But where an artist conceives of something out of the proverbial thin air, no winemaker anywhere in the world can do any such thing.
 
For example, when my wine heroine Lalou Bize-Leroy bought the former Domaine^? Noëllat in Vosne-Romanée and transformed it into Domaine Leroy, she did not create her magnificent wines from scratch. It was all right there in the hallowed ground and old vines^? of her newly acquired pieces of Richebourg and Romanée St.-Vivant. She didn't create something from nothing. Quite the opposite.
 
Fine wine is not creation. It is refinement. If it were otherwise, then everybody would be "creating" Lafite Rothschild or La Tâche or any other wine masterpiece of singular, irreproducible expression and high price. Counterfeiting aside, I don't see anybody doing that, do you?
 
They don't because they can't. That's precisely why fine wine is not art. It comes from all the forces that create a particularity of site. Great winemakers?which is to say, expert practitioners of winecraft?tease what they can from the sites that are available to them by planting the right grapevines, growing them astutely, harvesting the fruit at an ideal moment (a problematic issue today given some winemakers' and critics' preferences for ever greater ripeness) and handling the fermented juice^? in the cellar with deft control.
 
This is no small charge, and I, for one, do not seek to diminish it in any way. But art? Not a chance. The poet E.E. Cummings put his finger on it better than anyone else: "A world of made is not a world of born." Wine is no more a blank canvas than the Grand Canyon.
 
Why does this distinction matter? Because abstract though it is, if winemakers and, yes, wine lovers, see wine as art, then the essential connection between what a grape expresses from its site and what we expect is severed. If a winemaker is an "artist," then he or she, by artistic right, can and should modify the result to suit a personal vision separate from a "mere" expression of place.
 
However, if the finest winemaking is seen as a high craft, rather than art, the expectation changes subtly yet substantively. Where art presumes a blank slate upon which a personal vision necessarily is writ large, the notion of craft is more deferential. Like great parenting, it's a guardianship of something already largely complete. The goal is refinement and amplification of what's inherent. Think of what happens when parents do otherwise.
 
So it is with wine. All sorts of technological deconstruction and reconstruction now occurs in many wineries today, especially ones creating high-end?or at least high-priced?wines. They see themselves as artists and would like to convince you of same. If they can, well, you know how distorted the results can be?and who pays.
 
Matt Kramer has contributed regularly to Wine Spectator since 1985.

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It seems obvious on reflection but it remains an important distinction to make, especially given the widespread labeling of wine making as an art form, particularly in wine marketing circles.

Tags: melgab, wine, art, refinement, wine making, south-africa, South Africa

If you're not a subscriber to The Wine Front you don't get to see the reviews that are added to the site on most days. In the past seven days the following wines have been reviewed in the Subscriber Only section of this website.

Amon Ra Barossa Valley Unfiltered Shiraz 2006
Barking Owl Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2005
Barking Owl Shiraz Viognier 2005
Calulu Park Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2006
Clonakilla Canberra District Ballinderry 2006
Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz 2007
Clonakilla Murrumbateman Syrah 2006
Fools Bay Beached Barossa Shiraz Cabernet 2006
Fools Bay Dusty's Desire Shiraz 2006
Giant Steps Yarra Valley Tarraford Vineyard Pinot Noir 2006
Gipsie Jack Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2006
Gralyn Margaret River Cabernet Shiraz 2005
Gralyn Margaret River Racy Red 2007
Gralyn Margaret River Reserve Shiraz 2005
Gralyn Unoaked Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Hollick Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Hollick Coonawarra Sparkling Merlot 2006
Hollick Wrattonbully Hollaia Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Hollick Wrattonbully Shiraz 2004
Hollick Wrattonbully Tempranillo 2006
Massena The Moonlight Run 2006
Massena The Eleventh Hour 2006
Massena Howling Dog 2006
Mr Riggs Viognier 2007
Mr Riggs Yacca Paddock Tempranillo 2006
Mr Riggs Shiraz Viognier 2006
Mr Riggs McLaren Vale Shiraz 2006
Ravensworth Hunter Valley Shiraz 2007
Ravensworth Murrumbateman Marsanne 2007
Ravensworth Murrumbateman Sangiovese 2007
Ravensworth Murrumbateman Viognier 2007
Shelmerdine Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2007
Shelmerdine Yarra Valley Sauvignon 2007
Shingleback McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005
Tyrrell's Wines Double Barrel McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005
Wickhams Road Gippsland Chardonnay 2007
Wickhams Road Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2007
Yering Station Yarra Valley Reserve Pinot Noir 2006
Yering Station Yarra Valley Reserve Shiraz Viognier 2006

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Well it has been a few weeks since my last entry and although I could tell you all about   the Rhône and Burgundy en primeur campaigns, the New Wave Spanish wines I've    been trying, or the South African Reds to match the last entry of South African Whites that my father has been religiously clicking on to, only to discover nothing of what his daughter has been up to in the Big Smoke, I won't.

I am very tempted to tell you about having to pay an Australian, let's say friend, in wine for a lost - no, thoroughly thrashed - bet over the Ashes (this was his first return to England since that sorry episode). A fairly painful experience for both wallet and liver BUT let's move on to the future.

Wine Relief is upon us www.rednoseday.com/partners/wine-relief/ and there are several different bottles widely available to buy from which retailers are donating some of the profit to      Comic Relief. How easy is it to open a bottle of wine and make a difference?

For my part I have been enthusiastically working my way through the offerings and on March 3rd, this Saturday in fact, I will be a guest panellist on the Virtual Wine online tasting of the 6 best on offer. The team at Virtual Wine have also studiously tasted and deliberated to come up with the finalists which will be tasted by a select (!) panel live from 7.30 pm.

The idea is that you at home can order the taster packs of 6 wines from Virtual Wine (10% still going to Comic Relief) or buy them from the various retailers, and taste the wines at the same time. You can then send belligerent, loving or simply drunken messages to us via email and your concerns will be addressed immediately. What a laugh...

So get some friends round, you must have some, put on some nibbles and sharpen your tongues. Take a look here www.virtualwine.co.uk to download instructions and tasting notes.

These people like wine and have a laugh with it, their contribution to the cork vs screwcap debate was to race bottles down river to see which was fastest, the loser then wrestled the winner to the ground in an unscripted, but thrilling, finale.

If you?re interested in designing your own custom wine cellar there are a number of options available to you. The best news is that there are wine cellar designs for everyone from the avid do-it-yourselfer to the complete woodworking novice.

There are modular wine racks that are available in different grains and finishes, with the least expensive generally being a wood such as pine. Most modular wine rack dealers will offer other materials such as red cedar or finished wood as well. Of course you can always save some money and finish the wood yourself if you desire a particular type of finish or color for your wine cellar racks.

There are many wine racking companies that offer crown molding and skirting pieces so that you can easily combine different styles of wine cellar racking materials and types. This approach can yield some very unique custom wine cellar designs.

There are built in glass racks that are made to fit snugly within a rack system. A good place for one of these individual units would be above the table top piece mentioned above. This would add to the ambience as well as functionality of your custom modular wine racking system.

If you want something a little different than the traditional wood wine cellar racks, there are attractive metal trellis rack pieces that are very economical, yet stylish. These tend to look classier than the wood modular wine racking pieces, especially for placement in bar areas that will be viewed by visitors.

If you would like to add a table area to your wine cellar while increasing the storage capacity of your cellar at the same time, a wine bin table may be the best addition to your modular racking system. There are taller, wine tasting tables that hold just over 100 bottles or about 180 bottles of wine, and there are shorter wine rack tables that hold more than 200 wine bottles in case bins.

There are many online dealers and manufacturers of wine cellar racking pieces that also offer custom computer design services to help you achieve the exact wine cellar layout that you have in mine. With many of these professional services you can then have the plans sent to you and decide if you will build them yourself or have someone else build them for you.

With all of the wine cellar design options available to you, there are many ways to accomplish the perfect wine cellar design for you and your situation. There are many wine enthusiasts online communities and the like where you can find others interested in the same things that you are and maybe gain some other ideas about wine cellars and the design aspect of creating your own wine cellar.