European Wine Fighting for Survival from Der Spiegel. An excerpt from this interesting article:
Löwenstein has written a manifesto that has caused an uproar in the industry, what he calls a “Manifesto of the Terroirists.” He complains about the “infantilization” of taste, about people who want their wines to be as fruity as “strawberry jam or chocolate syrup.” He also curses the addiction to mass-produced wine and a German law that measures wine quality by sugar content. He scoops up a handful of soil and crushes it in his hands. It’s “as if the sun had baked out the oil,” says Löwenstein.
Soil, climate, weather. These factors should determine what the wine will ultimately taste like, is Löwenstein’s philosophy. Not technology — after all, technology determines everything else. It’s a philosophy that has earned him a reputation in the industry. A reputation as a troublemaker.
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For Löwenstein, there are real wines and there are Frankenstein wines, and it looks as though the Frankenstein camp is currently gaining ground. Löwenstein has old fashioned ideas, and he wants to return to the past.