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My formal debut in the study of Art History has led to think about my current practice: the business of wine writing and how is related to art
What is art?. This is the question that I will ponder in the next three years. For now, let’s say that Art is the production of a form or object that conveys a state of emotion, sensation or provokes insight of your human condition.
When we talk about an art object, we are assigning a specific aesthetic judgment and by doing so, a unique narrative is tagged to it. Basically, what recognition, appreciation or criticism you give to this object. This personal rendition is the magic that turns an object into a work of art. A painting by itself is just a combination of paints layed out on a canvas. An sculpture is just a block of chiseled rock and so on. This is the separation of beauty and function from an object
It is the same principle with wine. By itself, wine is the by product of fermented grape juice that results in the production of alcohol and a certain pigmentation of the liquid.
You give aesthetic worth to wine when you confer specific organoleptic qualities to it and as a result this makes it an object of art. This is the judgment of the wine writer or the wine critic. By the way, a wine drinker becomes a de facto critic when he/she produces a judgement on wine.
Beyond the organoleptic, wine as an art object serves the mean of catharsis about a certain human condition as well Let me ilustrate my point with a clip of one of the greatest wine movies Sideways:
Maya’s dialogue brings out to light the collective memory of a vintage and the cycle of life and death. The human feeling of empathy is also applied to wine. It is a beautiful personal fictional narrative.
There are no good or bad wines just our own narratives to specific bottles. How we form these narratives depends on our past relationship with wine but that’s another history.
