Problem: Wine in Crisis? Remedy: Move forward, like an arrow. Fearlessly.

The past month I have been feverishly working on a project involving Italian wine and how better to communicate its better aspects to consumers, who seem interested but are deluged with a tsunami of wine offerings from Italy. Call it a laboratory, if you will. What it is, is one place in time and space where the progress of Italian wine can be measured, albeit somewhat anecdotally. It is a real place and real people are making buying decisions on the wine they will drink tonight or during the weekend, and any number of situations where wine is called for. And I have good news.

In Service of Italian Wine

Now that I am “retired” I’ve spent some time reflecting on the years I worked in the wine trade. I am glad I survived those years, for I have a list of men and women who didn’t. At first, I thought it was just normal, but as the list grew and grew, I realized I was dodging bullets. Scores of young people, my colleagues, perished in the 40 years I was working. And they were not old people. Time just caught up with them earlier than the rest of us. That said, in reflection, I also realize that there were a few bullets aimed directly at me. How I managed to survive them is the subject of this essay.

That ain’t Italy, folks – Tourism in the 21st Century

The image above was taken from the Instagram site of a hotel I stay at occasionally in Rome. It is their way, I suppose, to offer up a fantasy view of a Rome that is Disney-like in its aspirational tone. While I can appreciate their desire to offer up a vision that will lift people up and take them away to a place where light and joy reigns, my present thoughts about travel digress. While we all need a little escape these days, and we are in the summer months, which for many people, traditionally, is a time for a vacation, this is also a time when many people around the world are suffering, needlessly. To take time “off” from the pressing and urgent problems of our day, seems ill-timed. Add to that, the over-consumption that is designed into today’s tourism industry, and put it in a place like Rome, Venice, or all of Italy, and all of a sudden, a country turns into a cruise ship. The recent events in Venice with the spectacle of a billionaire’s second marriage galvanized this concept into a gigantic, sparkling mess.

Wine on lists starting @ $100, concert seats @ $1,000, cars that run $100,000, watches for $250,000 – Excuse me, what planet am I on?

It finally dawned on me - We all live in a yellow submarine – now I know what it means. A submarine, a bubble, a fantasy world, that’s where we’ve landed. While multitudes of innocent children, women and men are sitting ducks for scores and scores of armaments, decision makers weigh in on who will live or who will die, over their espresso martinis and halibut quenelles, and the world outside of the bubble burns crispy.

Inside the bubble, though, not all is rosy. Wine lists where the average price of a bottle of wine is over $100, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour where tickets averaged over $1,000, a plethora of cars (and trucks!) now costing north of $100,000 and, surprise of surprises, a wristwatch that costs more than a Ferrari!

So, how did we get here? And why?