Wine Tastings or Circus show.

Wine.... an aristocratic drink?

We drink wine since.... forever....... Romans, Greeks, Gauls....
Fermented grape juice that in past times was drank diluted or mixed with water, it was part of the daily routine, shared at all times on any possible occasion.
Now a days things have changed, OH THEY HAVE CHANGED indeed. Today we have wine culture, wine education, an acquired knowledge that did not exist before and that today is taken very seriously.
Today we even have medical points of view towards drinking wine, whether if its good for your health, heart, arthritis, etc.
There's also precise and meticulous methods, techniques on how to obtain the maximum expression , distinction, realization and differentiation in a wine. Well, with use of amazing thecnology, machinery and of course of real connaisseurs who create the most sublime nectars. And I can't help wondering if all of this goes hand in hand with arrogance, pride, well... with lack of humility.
It just makes me so confused when I attend a wine tasting , I get all this funny reactions, between laughter and curiosity, to see how some people transform themselves as they take a wine glass in their hands, it seems they have to put an act to see who wins first price for best mannequin, the stiffest one, the one who makes the most ridiculous gestures, the most ridiculous faces and the one who raises his eyebrow higher.
So, why?, to what do we owe this phenomenon?.
Maybe we have taken a wrong turn, we have deflected a bit in the significance of drinking wine, what represents , it's true meaning, and instead we created a ritual full of pride and a huge lack of naturalness. Same happens with wine brands...... if " someone " very respected in the field rates ( gives a high score ) ) to a bottle of wine that once was affordable to us, simple mortals, then all of a sudden becomes affordable only for a selected number of VIP'S.
To generalize would be pretty unfair since many ( most ) of great wines with really high scores are worthy of them, for their great characteristics and quality. It seems as this is a two-faced world in which we will find a universe of choices, I just don't find it necessary to put on the " VIP " costume when it comes to wine tastings when all that really matters is to have a great time, try amazing bottles and maybe we might learn something.

Thesis(2009): The Evolution of the Sephardic Cuisine in Turkey: 500 Years of Survival

Culinary repertoire is influenced by cultural values, religious structure, socio-economical levels as well as a country’s climate and geography. The Sephardim expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 settled down in the Ottoman Empire and brought with themselves their food culture formed by the Spanish heritage. As culinary influence flows two ways, the Sephardim were affected from the Turkish-Ottoman cuisine and they, in return, contributed to their local neighbours. They become part of the civilisation in the Turkish geography where histories intersect.

The Sephardim continue to keep alive their home-style cooking of simple, colourful plates under the common influence of natural and healthy Mediterranean geography and complying with the kashrut rules.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the Turkish Sephardic cuisine. After the terminology of Sephardic, Sephardim and kashrut, the history of the Sephardic Jews in Turkey will be discussed. The basis of the cuisine and the methods of how food is prepared will be explained. Different specialities of various regions of Turkey will be analysed. Then, we will see how holidays and special days, when symbolic food is always in honour, prove explicitly that food symbolizes tradition and what man eats is closely linked to what he thinks and feels. We will compare the Sephardic and Ottoman cuisines to describe the reciprocal influence and how both cuisines enthusiastically embraced each other’s culture.

We will conclude by analyzing how this community cuisine has survived for more than five centuries and suggest some directions for the study of how it can continue to live and prosper as an expression of an ethnic group identity in today’s world of globalisation.

Sibel Cuniman Pinto

Istanbul, Turkey

now living in Paris, France

http://www.sibelpinto.com/

Thesis: Les Rouges et Des Viandes

My thesis compares and contrasts three great French red wines -- Bordeaux, Burgundy and Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe -- and how they complement three classic dishes -- Roast Chicken, Fillet of Beef and Rack of Lamb. 

Three tasting dinners were conducted in the name of research, and tasting notes for the wines, the meats and how they complemented each other were made by all the diners. They were analyzed in the body of the thesis, and the actual notes are included in the thesis as an Appendix.

Thesis: Marketing wine to Generation X (2005)

Why is the wine industry ignoring young consumers?

(abstract)

The French wine industry is facing difficult challenges with over production, shrinking home market and increasing competition in export markets. One of the reasons for this drop in consumption is young consumers' disaffection for wine.

This paper looks at wine consumption and wine marketing from a generational perspective and attempts to understand why young consumers are not consuming wine as their elders have done in the past. An attention is given to the marketing approach of the industry and its appeal to young consumers. The paper makes a case for young adults being the future vector for growth in the wine industry and stresses the need to address them now, while they are forming their consumption habits for life. In other case, they risk being lost forever as wine consumers.

The paper puts a focus on the Generation X, born from 1961 – 1980, and its followers the Generation Y, born from 1981-2000. These two groups make up the young adult market today. A discussion to cast a light on the main influencers that have formed the general characteristics of the Generation X, allow a better understanding of their behaviour as consumers, and the young consumer market in general. Based on this understanding of needs and wants of young consumers, the paper attempts to give guidelines to create a coherent marketing strategy targeted at young adults.


















Ragnar Fridriksson
Champagne, France
www.passionfood.fr
http://passionfood.canalblog.com/

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