Let’s just say it: The wine industry goes through a lot of fads and phases in its efforts to appeal to the masses. Some of these trends and terms just make matters more confusing and steer people away from simply enjoying the wine that’s in front of them. Possibly nobody sees this more than restaurant sommeliers, who have to navigate the obstacles these trends pose every service. Wine Spectator asked nine top sommeliers from across the country to share which terms and trends in the wine industry annoy them most, from “sugar-free” bottlings that defy logic to extra-heavy bottles that make their jobs harder to “bro” slang that’s just plain irritating.
“Natural” Wines
“The broad phrase ‘natural wine’ continues to confuse consumers and allow a slew of faulty wines to enter the marketplace. The benefits of a more natural approach to farming are many: healthier soils, healthier workers and a more forward-thinking understanding of how farming impacts the local as well as the global community. However, nothing about winemaking is natural. We carefully lay out vineyards, harvest at specific moments to accentuate different aspects of a grape variety, and control fermentation so as not to produce vinegar rather than wine. So many things can go wrong between harvest and putting wine into a bottle and, too often, the label ‘natural wine’ allows these faults to be accepted as normal. In many ways, I feel those most enamored with natural wine are the very consumers who don’t have a broad understanding of ‘classic’ wines well made and without issues.”—Jason Alexander, wine director of Award of Excellence winner Che Fico and Best of Award of Excellence winner Che Fico Menlo Park in San Francisco
“I would love to see less of a divide between ‘natural’ and ‘classic.’ I don’t think it’s wrong to gravitate towards a specific style and philosophy behind wine. That totally makes sense, and I certainly do. But I have good friends who are deeply rooted in the ‘natty’ wine scene and others who are blind-tasting referential Pinot Grigio for exams, and I like hanging out and drinking with all of them! There’s never really been a better time to drink wine than today, so I’d like to see more crossover than there might have been recently. By the way, I’m calling myself out on this first!”—Charles Gaeta, wine representative at Best of Award of Excellence winner Dedalus Wine Shop, Market and Bar, Burlington, Vt.
Heavy Wine Bottles
“Heavy wine bottles. It’s time for those to disappear, please. Seriously, what’s the point of extra thick glass unless you’re trying to make up for something? Wine is usually shipped in 56-case pallets, and those clunky bottles just mean fewer cases and more wasted oil on ocean transport—not to mention the difficulty all sommeliers deal with in racking them. Kudos to Salcheto, one of the top Sangiovese producers in Montepulciano, for ditching the weight and putting their high-quality juice in sleek, minimalist bottles. Let the wine do the talking—leave the showboating to the Kardashians.—Nicholas Schulman, director of wine for Best of Award of Excellence winners RPM Italian Restaurants in Washington D.C., Chicago and Las Vegas
Snobby Sommeliers
“The trend that I wish to see fade away is how pretentious and imbued by themselves some sommeliers can be. Wearing a fancy suit doesn’t immediately make you a sommelier. In the end, we’re vessels between the guest and the winemaker. Our job is not to intimidate or upsell. It’s to tell a story, find the right wine for each guest, educate and brighten the guest experience. I firmly believe that the more knowledgeable you are, the more humble you should be.”—Thibault Dubreuil, sommelier of Eli’s Table, New York City
Wine Aged in Spirits Barrels
“As wine consumption trends down, this seems a particularly pandering attempt to capture a younger and broader market. However, there are hundreds of winemaking techniques available to traditional winemaking to encourage nuance in a particular bottle of wine. This seems like a cheap shortcut, to the detriment of pure winemaking. —Adam Greer, sommelier at Award of Excellence winner Blu on the Hudson, Weehawken, N.J.
“Sugar-Free” Wines
“This is a misrepresentation of wine as a whole. There would be no wine without sugar because alcohol can only be made with sugar.”—Kristin Courville, lead sommelier of Best of Award of Excellence winner the Bazaar by José Andrés, New York City
“Wine is made with grape sugars. As more consumers look to eliminate sugar from their diets, I can sympathize with seeking out ‘diet’ and ‘sugar-free’ wines, but the chemical process of removing sugar from wine makes it even more artificially manipulated, and even less a product of nature. This seems counterintuitive to healthy lifestyle choices to me.”—Adam Greer
“Juice”
“One wine industry-ism that gets under my skin is when a great bottle of wine is referred to as ‘great juice’ or ‘sick juice.’ While this may technically be true, it has an insinuation that can feel a bit too much like bro culture, even if it is typically used facetiously!”—Suzanne DeStio, wine and beverage director of Best of Award of Excellence winner, One White Street, New York City
Flavored Wines
“It’s a harsh wish, but if there’s one trend that I wouldn’t mind seeing less, it’s flavored wine. Quite frankly, in the long run, it deters consumers from diving deeper into the vast world of wine. Hear me out: From the sweetness, it causes a gnarly hangover, and the rest is history.”—Eduardo Dingler, vice president of Wine Access and wine and spirits consultant for Award of Excellence winner Kembara, Phoenix
Canned Wines
“Call me a fogey, but I just don’t get wine in a can. I can recognize the desire to compete in the White Claw and alcoholic seltzer market, but with what quality of product? Wine remains a legacy of thousands of years of craftsmanship and agriculture. This doesn’t mean it has to trend towards elitism. I believe if you offer the best possible product, you can stand behind it and let the market decide. To chase convenience and mass-market appeal somehow cheapens the industry as a whole. I believe one of my duties as a sommelier is to diligently hunt for wines that hit way above their price point, in order to pass quality and value to the consumer. This seems a better approach than flooding a grocery-store shelf with canned wine.”—Adam Greer
“Sweet” Wines
“For jargon that I wish would die out, using the word ‘sweet’ when it really means ‘fruity.’ Unless you’re sipping wine with residual sugar, all wines are fermented dry, meaning the yeast converted the sugar in the grapes into alcohol. Sure, each grape expresses itself differently and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc will be more expressive and fruity than a glass of Grüner [Veltliner], but they’re both dry. The glass of Sauvignon Blanc will leave more of a sensation of fruitiness, not sweetness. It’s a classic error that I encounter every day on the floor.”—Thibault Dubreuil
