Top Wine Stories Of The Year: The Aha Moments And The Element Of Surprise

End-of-year retrospectives provide an interesting opportunity to reflect, not only on which stories and themes about wine resonated with readers in 2021, but why they resonated to the extent that they did.

In the first installment of this series, we considered the thread running through three of 2021’s top stories, that is, those articles that are quintessentially “of the moment” of this past year’s pandemic-era experience: gender and politics of the wine industry; the impact of COVID on our wine consumption patterns; and visits to wine roads less traveled that evoke both nostalgia for pre-pandemic travel and anticipation of tourist adventures to come.

For the second installment of the series, we consider the element of surprise as a common denominator among the stories highlighted here. Surprise, for example, when we look at wine from an unorthodox chronology, that is, after it’s consumed. Surprise, also, to learn how consumers say with certainty that they want one thing (pinot noir, that is) but are actually describing an entirely different wine. And finally, the happy surprise of a mother who discovered her vocation of sommelier later in life, only after her daughter, the chef-owner of a tiny but iconic restaurant in Maine, ventured into her own voyage of unexpected accomplishment.

These are the “aha moments” of this year’s column, along with a little context about why they struck a chord.

After the Wine: What Happens Next

You and I are both accustomed, for the most part, to consuming what could be called “pre-wine” communication: writing that anticipates the wine, that is, and tries to persuade consumers to buy it, and expresses the narrative of what it took to bring the wine to your table. Fair enough. But what happens then? What happens next, once we’ve poured a glass or two and enjoyed our fill?

This piece explored the post-wine experience, and readers and colleagues alike reached out to acknowledge the surprise of the vantage point of what we do with a wine’s memory once the wine itself is gone. Did it trigger a lingering curiosity? Does it inspire the intention of embedding the experience even deeper into our personal or sensory histories? Those are a few of the indicators of “post-wine” success.

Wine, Misunderstood

Another “aha moment” of this column happened midway through an in-person tasting I led this summer, of six different pinot noir wines from around the world. The audience of enthusiastic wine consumers say that they want pinot noir. But, when I really listened to them describe what they want from a wine, it was not pinot noir they were describing. What is meant, today, by “pinot noir” turns out to be a moving target. It is also, for many in the audience and maybe for readers as well, more diverse and surprising than the assumptions they held before they walked into the room.

A Sommelier Who (Almost) Wasn’t

Erin French, the chef and owner of The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine, published her memoir in April this year. It’s called Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story, Remaking a Life from Scratch and is a sequel, in a way, to her cookbook The Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine, published in 2017. My review of the memoir struck a chord with readers even though the book isn’t technically “about” wine or even French herself. What resonated, I think, was moreso the story of a secondary character, that is, how her mother (the restaurant’s sommelier) found her voice through wine.

“Among all the women, one came to life more than I could have imagined,” French writes in Finding Freedom. “I got to watch as [my mother] blossomed like a spring flower that had endured a long, cold Maine winter.” French writes that her mother “was more capable than she even realized,” and that “her willingness to learn ran wild in her.” Discovering wine led her to discover her voice as well as a wider world. It is the best kind of journey that wine can lead us through.

It’s also a perfect way to finish the second installment of 2021’s recap of top stories. Please read on for Part Three.