How long does a human have to live somewhere before others stop calling it new? New York. New Orleans. New Braunfels. Where I live, in Texas, humans have been here for what scientists have said might be 10,000-13,000 years. In North America, multiply that by ten, 130,000. What’s new about that? Oh, so the white men from Europe just “discovered” it 500 years ago, and then it must be new? It now sounds so unfledged.
People have lived in the place we now call Italy for 200,000 years, from what we now think. Oh, so 200,000 is old, and 130,000 isn’t? And estimates range, from 200,000 to 2 million years, that propose humans, in one form or another, have been here on earth. Compare that with dinosaurs who roamed the earth for what, about 165 million years? And they’ve been gone for 65 million? It would seem that whatever world we humans think we are from is a hell of a lot newer than the world the dinosaurs left behind.
And what about that world? Scientists calculated that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Nothing new about this world, on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, which, itself, is about 150 million years old. A spring chicken compared to Mother Earth.
So, why this need to call a place like California, in respect to her wines, New World? And why Italy, Old World? It sounds to me like someone is trying to determine a hierarchy of place. And those someone’s are newish at best, interlopers on the terrestrial scene. Why aren’t we talking more about this?
“Oh, you want to know?” the little voice in my head whispers. “Because it fits the script of the wine snob.” Ah, yes, the posh creature of the vinous world. They sniff, they twirl, they spit. They spin.
That’s all this New World/Old World crap is – spin. I’m white. I’m European. I’m cultured. I set the standards. I make the rules. North America and South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, are New World. Why other than that would they call it New Zealand?
And France and Italy, etc., Europe, is Old World.
I’m calling bullshit on all of this. The question is now, what do we call it?
How about Italian wine. French wine. California wine. etc.
But who named California, California? Surely not the indigenous beings who’ve lived there for thousands of years? I’m not even sure we should call it that? After all, the name is probably less than 500 years old, a mere snap of the fingers in geologic time.
Same goes for Italy. Enotria? Oenotria?
North America – Vinland? One thing for sure, 500-2,500 years ago there were vines, maybe grape-vines, in both places. And wine to come.
But Old? New? Can wine writers look for a “new” way to call it something other than that which belittles one for the cause of another? Haven’t we done that enough to the folks who got here long before us?
I remember a chat I had with a Hopi elder, years ago. He was older than I was at the time. But he also related to me that his people were ancient. More ancient than my predecessors. He was very comfortable in his skin and in his place. Maybe that comes with age. Maybe he had to overcome many hardships. No, not maybe. Certainly. But he knew where he was. And it had a name. Not one given by a Spanish Conquistador.
We are barely just arrived here on this planet, which has had more time with dinosaurs than people. Hell, jellyfish kicks both our asses. And cyanobacteria have been here for almost as long as the earth – 3.5 billion years! So, enough of this New World/Old World crap, OK? Let’s be better than that.
This is my 2 cacao beans worth. It ain’t a biggie, but it’s a step.
