I stumbled (quite literally) on this article by Laura Shapiro. And although penned (tapped?) to address the American condition it struck a chord thinking about the way Nu Zillund approaches wine. We may not have the "two-buck chuck" but this passage could desribe the kiwi nation as readily as America
" As a nation, we have habits that go back centuries and make it almost impossible to incorporate wine comfortably into ordinary life. We eat and run, we swerve frantically between teetotaling and bingeing, we think of food as a necessity but wine as an indulgence, and we wouldn’t dream of raising our children to drink sensibly by offering a little watered-down wine at the dinner table. Wine-drinking nations see wine as an intrinsic part of the meal, a feature so unremarkable that food-and-wine practically constitutes a single entity. Americans just don’t think that way."
We've just come out the other side of the festive season, and all the excess that entails, and there's has been some mind-numbing navel gazing devoted to our binge-drinking culture which I don't really want to add wieght to. But, as a kind of belated New Year's resolution, I would like to push the envelope this year of wine and life, inextricably linked, as healthy and inclusive.
I'm starting a family come June and it would be nice to think I could play a (very small) part in helping Nu Zillund work towards the kind of wine culture we romanticise from the old world.
2 comments:
Great Post and I couldn't agree more. As Winemaking parents we encourage our kids to ask questions and try if they are interested. We enjoy wine with our meal every night and hope that the kids see where the wine fits. Hopefully, we have also instilled understanding and respect for wine so that when the peer pressure comes on later they have enough of an understanding to make the right choices. It is a learning process.
Sarah,
Congratulations. I think there is much to be said about the simple act of siting together and eating as a family (minus the TV and actually eating something that has been cooked and prepared).
Post a Comment