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"Cult wines" - tempting cover story in "weinwelt" from December/January 2009
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Now and then, I like to be seduced! Not only by certain wines, now and then also by the headlines of wine magazines. This time, "Kultweine" is emblazoned on the cover of the December-January issue of "Weinwelt". Already the magazine finds another buyer, me! On page 20, the revelation: "Their names are the sound of mythical sirens for wine lovers, and epicureans can hardly escape their aura: Cult wines!"
Since I expressly count myself among the species of epicureans, I "devoured" the almost three pages. Not much new, but everything - as far as I can tell - is quite correct. The usual names appear, from Romnanée-Conti to Pétrus and Vega Sicilia Unico to Ornellaia. "These and other wines that raise the heartbeat, promote salivation, moisten the eyes and shrink bank accounts are what this is all about."
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Pétrus in California - offer from a wine shop in Sonoma
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For the first time, I doubt my own definition of a pleasure person. Because all that is suggested in the article does not apply to me at all. My heart often beats faster and my bank account shrinks when I drink wine: But the reasons for this are completely different wines, completely different names.
Maybe Pétrus can still create a little awe in me, but already "Le Pin" leaves me cool, not to say cold. Am I not normal, not quite in line with pleasure? Whenever I'm at a loss, whenever I doubt myself, I remember my painstakingly acquired knowledge of Latin: "Cultus" equals worship of the gods. The word is probably derived from the verb "colere", which can be translated as "to cultivate". The more I think about it, the more images develop. Pagan images, like the dance around the golden calf. Biblical images, like the birth of Christ, Christmas. Experienced images from my youth, which was embedded in a thousand rituals.
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Latour in China - offer from a wine shop in Shanghai
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Cult images always focus on an object of veneration: the golden calf, the tabernacle in the church, idols of the teenager or even (later) a bottle of wine in the midst of a devoutly sniffing, slurping and swallowing group.
All of a sudden I realise: it takes more than just a so-called cult wine. It needs a community that cultivates the cult. That's what we wine enthusiasts are all about. Especially at tastings or at what we call "wine and dine". The third element, which is probably part of every cult, is also present in abundance when dealing with wine: the ritual. Cheers!
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"A sip of paradise" - cover story of the "Weinwelt" magazine
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Are cult wines simply "good wines" or something more? They are certainly at least "good wines" - because even the calf had to be golden! - but are all "good wines" also cult wines? This obvious conclusion is probably wrong There is something else that belongs to cult wine, namely belief. The belief that with a wine bought at the highest possible price, with a cult-guaranteeing name and the appropriate rituals, paradise can be brought back to our earth, bought, so to speak. That is why cult wines are disproportionately expensive. The name alone, the term, the label as an attribute of the cult, costs far more than what the wine itself, the product, is worth. Our cult ideas also include material values. What is not expensive cannot be cult. After all, all the wines that have been declared cult objects profit from this. By whom, actually? And - who maintains the myth that surrounds cult wines?
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Tasting in Beaune. 100 wine freaks from all over the world have arrived
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Wine critics cultivate these myths, constantly inventing new aspects, new evidence, new legends, new myth experiences: "Twelve bottles of the legendary 100-point vintage 1961 from Château Latour were knocked down at an auction in Hong Kong for 132,153 euros, thus reaching a new record price." Awe-inspiring amazement! More than 10,000 euros for a single bottle. The wine cult world is richer by one legend. Entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The "golden calf is reborn!". Almost simultaneously with this news, the brochure for a new wine book flutters into the house. "The 1000 best wines". These are wines from the past 200 years that have been awarded the highest points by the authors. Cult wines, in other words! The oldest of the wines bears the year 1774, the youngest 2006. All wines with a certain cult status.
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The 1000 best wines - cult book
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Once again I let myself be seduced: Cult status. This time by a book. It is now in front of me and I flip through it excitedly. Why, actually? I guess I'm doing what most buyers do. Checking how many of the 1000 best wines one has already drunk. But above all, how many of the best of the best have already been in one's own glass or even lie in one's own cellar. 23 wines are given the "highest score" (100 points). Most of them come from the Bordelais - 16 in fact. The first wine journalists are already reporting that they can confirm the verdict from their "own experience".
Own experience? The book begins with the "legendary" Latour 61. Who has already drunk this, or even had it in their own cellar? Not me. And probably very few wine lovers in the world. It continues in the same style. Mouton Rothschild 1945, Romanée-Conti 1945, Cheval Blanc 1947, Margaux 1900, Lafite Rothschild 1870, d`Yquem 1811..... I readily admit that I have not drunk any of these wines, although I have been drinking Bordeaux almost daily for more than 20 years. Although I have an impressive Bordeaux cellar. Although...
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Wine devotional place in Burgundy. Where the wines of Chassagne Montrachet mature
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This raises a suspicion in me: Isn't there something being confused here: cult and culture? Not only the term "cult" can be derived from the Latin word "colere", but also "culture". But culture - in connection with wine - has completely different dimensions for me. There is nothing about that in the book of the "1000 best wines" - only about cult and its rituals.
For me, wine always means a certain generation of meaning in life - especially in its beautiful side, the enjoyment. Wine is directly related to my knowledge of wine culture (not cult), my own experiences, knowledge, values, financial possibilities, my current state of mind..... In short: for me, wine is a cultural part of my own world. And it is not oriented towards the 1000 best wines. Nor by the list of cult wines. It is oriented towards what a wine can give me: Joy, pleasure, satisfaction, experience, annoyance, disappointment....
Disappointed, I slam the book shut. Not disappointed that I didn't find my own "best wines". Disappointed that the culture of wine has become a cult.
Yours sincerely, Peter
(Züllig)
