The thing is… never had there been more difference between lifestyle wine drinkers and real wine aficionados. How so?
Well, with bars and restaurants closed all over Europe for most of the year, only true wine lovers keep the tempo and some even increase the volume and quality of wine consumed. Statistical averages mean nothing in circumstances of 2020.
There is nothing wrong with occasional “lifestyle” drinkers, foremost these are people ordering wines at restaurants because it is expected to order a bottle of wine at a restaurant. It is a convention after all. But they will hardly buy a bottle at a wine store or a wine web shop, maybe at a supermarket and as a gift for someone.
On the other hand, true wine lovers need the wine, not to get drunk but as a part of enjoying life in full. They have experienced synesthesia of certain food and wine pairings and seek it from that moment on. Or they desire to bring back a memory only a specific taste can trigger. This is wine culture, the ability to experience, taste and feel distant places without travelling.
So, in a way, we could observe the year 2020 as some kind of a test. To which group do You belong?Both are important to a wine culture.
A normal year will be filled with wine festivals and presentations. Last major wine event in Croatia was held in the first days of March, just before the whole world went into lockdown.
So, Vinart Grand Tasting did introduce many new releases, but Vinart Grand Tasting showed something far more valuable.
Several vertical tastings and especially the tasting of “iconic” wines of Croatia clearly presented how beautiful the old vintages are today and that Croatia is more than capable of producing wines with some serious ageing potential and true greatness still “under the radar” in the world of fine wines.
Perhaps, the significance of 2020 is not in the new wine releases, although there had been few significant ones, nor is it in abundance of Decanter Awards Croatian wines harvested in 2020. It might be in Enjingi Venje 1998, Krajančić Statut 2011, Coronica Gran Teran 2004, Miloš Stagnum 2005 and all the other wines improved and developed with time.
Instead of conclusion, we will forget all the bad things 2020 brought and transfer all the good ones into 2021. After all, the harvest of 2020 was generally one of the best in a decade. Many good wines to be expected in years to come.
