Has Wine Lost Its Moorings? A Response to Eric Asimov

Eric's been thinking hard about wine's troubles in his latest New York Times piece, laying out prescriptions for an ailing industry: lower prices, lose the snobbery, simplify offerings. Thoughtful stuff. But reading through it, one question kept nagging at me: Has wine lost its cultural moorings?

Prophecy and Perspective on the Blackland Prairie

The buffalos are coming back. The soccer moms in Escalades have upgraded to Teslas. And the crystal ball I peered into a decade ago sits on my desk, a little cloudier, a little wiser, mocking me gently as I thumb through that 2015 post about Italian wine regions to watch.

Ten years I wrote 5 Italian Wine Regions to Watch in 2015. Ten years - long enough to age a Barolo, to see a vineyard replanted reach maturity, to watch trends rise and fall like the tides at San Benedetto del Tronto. So what did I get right? What did I miss? And what does the murky sphere tell me now?

Your Essential Guide to Italy's DOC and DOCG Wines - 2025 Version

You're standing in front of a wine list. Barbaresco, Barolo, Brunello—all those B's swimming together. Someone at the table asks what the difference is between DOC and DOCG, and you realize you're not entirely sure yourself. Or maybe you are sure, but explaining it without sounding like you're reading from a textbook is another matter entirely.

I've spent forty years navigating Italian wine in America, and I still find myself circling back to these fundamentals. Not because they're complicated—they're not, really—but because understanding them changes how you see the entire Italian wine landscape. It's like learning to read the grain in a piece of wood before you start carving.

Ten Years After: What I Got Right (and Wrong) About Italian Wine in America

A decade ago, I threw some educated guesses into the wind about *where Italian wine in America was headed. Looking back is still easier than looking forward, but at least now I have some data. The past is dust, remember? But sometimes it's instructive dust.