Reflecting on Authenticity

Denominations of Origin (DOC) are incredibly important because they benefit wine producers and consumers. DOC wine is limited in the marketplace which adds value to a producer’s brand and consumers can distinguish if the wine they buy is really from the intended region of origin. Additionally, DOCs push wineries to have stringent rules around how the wine is produced to make sure they are of the utmost quality… but as far as I am concerned, as long as a winemaker produces wine of high quality using grapes from the region, the process of how they create wine should not be scrutinized or change the ‘authenticity’ of the wine. In the Barolo Wars reading, Angelo Gaja’s passion for wine-making is as authentic as it gets. Changing the way a wine is produced (ex – introducing steel tanks for fermentation) may mean the wine is not traditional, but it is still authentic.

I think in the question of authenticity, there lies a deeper philosophical question – can a point of view that challenges tradition be authentic? Modernity challenges tradition and I believe that there is room for both old and new in the definition of what we consider authentic (especially in the context of wine).