13/05/2026
The Sun Rises in the Wine Glasses
Often one feels alone when one has a viewpoint which is not a common viewpoint. I have now read an article written by Ian Carrol and I wish to record his article in full;
"I spent 8,000 Euros and two years studying for wine certifications. Here's what I learned: most of it is completely useless for helping customers buy wine.
Level 1 WSET teaches you how to identify "primary, secondary, tertiary aromas."
Your customer doesn't care. They want to know if it's sweet or dry.
Level 2 teaches you appellations, climate zones and wine making techniques.
Your customer wants to know if it goes with salmon
Level 3 teaches you to write systematic tasting notes using the Court of Master Sommeliers grid.
Your customer wants to know if they like it.
The wine industry built an entire certification industry around knowledge that doesn't help sell wine. It helps sommeliers feel important.
Don't get me wrong, wine education has value. But we've confused "knowing about wine" with "helping people enjoy wine." Those are not the same thing."
This man has my vote.
I have searched for many things and held to a few. One was the parable of the centipede which went as follows;
"A centipede was happy -- quite!
Until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray which leg moves after which?"
This raised doubt to such a level,
That the centipede fell in a ditch
And died................."
And who, who pays not our taxes, can tell us what to enjoy when we want to enjoy?
You may say why? I say why not?
In support Molly Bossardt, a "Marketing Strategist for Premium Wine" notes the following;
- "status symbols are dying everywhere".
- "the most knowledgeable people she knows in the industry drink whatever actually excites them"
- according to her "the premium market isn't dying, the bottom and middle are collapsing" and the wine industry has been to "double down on prestige, push prices higher and build walls around an already exclusive category."
- the industry is pricing younger consumers out of the market while clearing the bulk of their wine overseas at prices far below what the loyal South African pays.
She avers that wine didn't lose the consumers to other products but by them deciding wine was a prestige category, not an everyday drink. They are rejecting wine because they do not feel the need to pass some type of etiquette test to enjoy wine.
I feel so connected to those who drink O'Connell's wines because I know that they are such special people. They enjoy their wine with what and whenever they feel like. They are not bound by pretentious stances as to their enjoyment. They are an uninhibited, free people.
When I commenced my career in the wine industry and questioned non-wine users as to why they did not enjoy wine, they universally replied that they found wine "bitter". Bitter, to me, is not a characteristic of a wine, it is a manifestation of a "bad" wine. Is it not strange that often award-winning wines are "bitter?" It is a scientific fact that the average, and even a practiced palate, cannot discern the characteristics in mouth of more than 4, even at a push, 6 or 8 wines. Yet judgements are made in wine sittings tasting more than 20+ wines a sitting.
The tide seems to be turning to the time when Graca launched a "fun wine" which sold unheard of volumes and overturned the status quo of the "established" market leaders which in those days comprised 6 wines with a combined market share of more than 40%.
But then the "thought police" retaliated and brought order back to the wine industry. How dare the wine lovers laugh, and joke and smile and be happy? Now even Christian Eedes states that "wine is losing its place as an everyday drink"..... (because they want) "simplicity, value and reliability."
Why do wine drinkers, in an enlightened and free society bow to "protocol?" The media proclaim "alcohol free" wine is the new wave. Alcohol free wine is a chemical soup and anybody who thinks it tastes "nice" is delusional. I have even listened to professors at Stellenbosch decry the product.
I am not a prophet but have listened to people. We try to provide what people want, not what we want them to like.
We do not do alcohol free wine. We do "lemming free" wines.
To our clan, stay as free and uncaring of dogma in your life as you have so journeyed unfettered to this day.
O'Connell's salutes you.
