Written with Giorgio de Maria Fun Wines.
In 2023, global wine consumption was down to 1996 levels … when the planet had 2 billion less people. It’s widely reported that Millennials and Gen Z are drinking a lot less than older generations, a trend that now appears to be creeping generational brackets (I can’t be the only one in this vicious loop of “sober-curious” insta ads?). And then, there’s Dry-January. And July. While I happily admit to a healthy (ha) interest in the explosion of non-alcoholic beverages, I am a little confused that it is now considered better to be smoking pot than drinking wine.
I like a glass of wine. I like the taste – not just for the flavours but also for the capsule of time and place that are protected under cork. I like the conviviality of sharing a bottle, the anticipation and joy in hearing that cork being popped, gathering the glasses, stopping to look into each other’s eyes before the first sip, sitting, lingering. I also like that gentle feeling that washes over you about one glass down, the exhaling, when everything relaxes a little - yes, yes, that would be the alcohol.
(Quick caveat - I don’t, for a second, want to say everyone should drink. If you don’t want to, or if it’s no good for you, then please don’t. I support you. But I also don’t want to have the opposite rammed down my throat. I don’t think that’s fair either.)
I am also curious. What happened? When did wine become the devil? Has alcohol really become the new cigarette? I’m not going to get into the science, the history of the studies for and against (and tales about those who fund them), or the contradictory blue zones, let alone the inflammatory millennial arguments. Nor am I going to delve into the history – social, cultural and otherwise – of previous temperance movements (although I did enjoy that particular rabbit hole).
A softer idea, comes from Alice Feiring:
“Whether in the vines or the market, wine is in crisis. Sales are down. People blame the increased interest in non-alcoholic drinks, overlooking the obvious. Wine is far too expensive for those who drink it. But it barely makes a living for those who sell it. I don’t have the answer for climate crisis or business, but something has to give. With lower yields, winemakers have to keep their prices higher to survive. So what to do? That’s why people are considering the more forgiving hybrids, rethinking pruning and planting, and on a biz level, it is time to lobby for more flexibility within the distribution system.”
Maybe Alice is right and this (like everything else at the moment) is about the hip pocket (vs cost of production)? If that’s the case, wine wouldn’t be alone. It’s precarious out there right now. Restaurants are closing left, right and centre. The pinch is real. It’s funny that for so many a meal and a glass of wine are the first things to go - when sitting at a table with friends, languishing over that last bit of cheese and a glass of wine, are some of the things that I think really tickle the soul. They certainly tickle mine.
She is also right to suggest this means creative thinking. Not just in wine but I would suggest also in restaurants (see the newly formed Australian Restaurant and Café Association). We have to support the people and ideals that we hope to come out the other side with us. Good environmental practice, good taste, art and community should not be the things we cast aside when the going gets tough, these should be the things we lift up.
Producers:
To that end, tonight our wonderful friends Andy and Claire are hosting a fundraising dinner at Bar Merenda to support Jonai Farm’s plans to build a micro-abattoir in Daylesford, Victoria. As farmers across the country rapidly lose access to abattoirs, butchers, grain mills and dairy processing, it’s heartening to see people like this working collectively to protect the future of local food. This is a prime example of the kind of thing we need to lift up.
Jonai Farms work with a community of small-scale farmers on Djaara Country. Their aim is take back control of the infrastructure intrinsic to livestock farming that has been captured by multinational corporations – in this case, abattoirs.
The Meat Collective @ Jonai, to be built in collaboration with Pig & Earth Farm, will be a micro-abattoir where the Jonai and several other local livestock farmers will be guaranteed the future of slaughter with the highest animal welfare. Fees will be democratically set by all farmer members to cover costs of operation (energy, compliance, consumables, etc) and ensure all meatsmiths earn a decent livelihood. No surplus value will be extracted from the system - there will be no financial returns beyond the wages earned by those doing the labour. The returns, instead, include beneficial environmental custodianship, highest animal welfare outcomes, and farmer autonomy and well being.
This has been a decade-long project. It is fundamental to setting a precedent for our future, while in many respects being a return to the past – a time when farmers could choose where their beasts where slaughtered, take them there in a stress-free manner, be assured they weren’t to then spend a day overwhelmed, in the sun among other stressed animals. This is not a step back, but a leap forward. Read more about how you can be involved here.
Restaurants:
At a time when we need more examples of how booze can be done well, of why it is important to community, “genre-defining” Hobart pub Tom McHugo’s is being forced to close. Have the tissues at hand while you read this one, Nola James has gathered together tributes from many of Tassie’s greats and written a love letter to “the” pub. I was particularly touched by how many times the word “home” appeared.
Kylie is also shutting her doors at Lucky Kwong this month. Did you have a chance to watch her Australian Story? You can read a little summary here (tissues may be handy here too). Her reasons for closing are best articulated in her own words: “For me, food and cooking is an exploratory and conscious act, not only a pleasure for the senses but also a platform for cultural exchange, storytelling and building community. I want to go deeper …” - read more here.
Tetsuya has also announced the end for his eponymous restaurant after 37 years. I have perused the articles on the topic, but haven’t really found one that gets to the crux of the restaurant’s value to Australia (or at least the way I see it). For me, it’s found somewhere between those heady golden years when Tets was still in Rozelle, before the cross-cultural love affair between Japanese and French cooking was called fusion (with or without the “con-”). It continues with the alumni who are still defining our culinary landscape: Mikey Clift and Dan Pepperell for their work at Clam Bar, Pellegrini’s and 916 (incidentally also closing!); Luke Burgess and Rodney Dunn, who met at Tets Rozelle and went on to kickstart the culinary push to Tasmania (Westcott of Tom McHugo’s was the first employee at Garagistes, Dunn continues to wow at the Agrarian Kitchen); Luke Powell, who has just released a new book Quality Meats; the boys from the Three Blue Ducks; Kylie Javier-Ashton who led the floor at Momo; Martin Benn, Dan Hong, Louis Tikaram, the list goes on and on and on. And while it is very penis-heavy, it’s still astonishing. What. A. Legacy.
(PS – having typed that, it would be remiss of me to not mention that Kylie leaves behind her a trail of similar pedigree: OTama Carey (LFS), Mat Lindsay (ester), Jemma Whiteman (ante), among them.)
This isn’t just a Sydney phenomenon. South of the border Izakaya Den, La Luna and Gingerboy are all shuttering/have shuttered too. While the reasons are many and varied, the outlook isn’t fantastic. Dani Valent’s latest article on the situation suggests we could lose 5,000 restaurants over the next year.
Of course there’s always a window open somewhere - this month’s window is Neil Perry’s Song Bird, with 230 seats and 100 dishes on the menu, no less. As Terry pointed out in his Margaret review, it’s taken 40 years of producer relations to get here. Neil’s commitment to produce – particularly when sourcing meat or fish – has been inspiring for decades. I am looking forward to seeing what he does with that here.
Things to eat:
In other brighter news, the NYTimes put out a list of the 25 Essential Pasta Dishes to eat in Italy right now. The list was carefully compiled from shortlists of five food writers/chefs/historians, then whittled down to come to this list, and then tasted in situ by anonymous food industry reps – the incredible rigour (and budget) applied to their selection process has resulted in an excellent list drawing in the fancy and the humble.
Dishes like sardine pasta (“… all the contradictions and complexities inherent to Sicilian cooking: high-end ingredients like plump sweet raisins and resinous pine nuts mix with sardines, the poorest of fish, barely boned, to form more of a stew than a pasta sauce; it’s also redolent of wild fennel. The warm, chaotic Trattoria Ferro di Cavallo, which opened in 1944 and is in the heart of the old city, doesn’t take reservations …”) jostle for attention alongside Bottura’s modernist take on lasagne. It’s a list to travel by (if you’re plotting Mexico, they were there last year.)
For those considering France this year, Aaron has compiled his list of wine salons over summer. You can find it here.
In a broader sense, Gareth Storey wrote about where to eat tripe, while this Frenchy put together a handy little instructional vid on how to politely cut blue cheese (he calls it a “bleu persillés” - a cheese that is mottled, looking like it has chopped parsley through it) – heart and rind for everyone!
While I’m still eating all the peas and asparagus, I see Pat’s got his hands on some puntarelle, while Georgie has all the radicchios and chicories “their textures as diverse as their flavours.” Winter’s delights, worth indulging in.