Crises in the history of winemaking: what lessons can be learned from them

It's no secret that in any battle there are winners and losers. I don't really believe in a draw, as it is often a compromise anyway. But I do believe that you can come out of any crisis as a winner or a loser. It all depends on your attitude and attitude to the situation.

Consider the economic turmoil of recent years, particularly the crisis of 2020-2022 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many wineries around the world, the plummeting tourism, restaurant closures and logistical failures were a major blow: sales plummeted and many wineries in Italy, France and Spain were on the brink of survival. No one understood what would happen next or how it would end.

At the same time, there were some very enterprising winemakers: small, flexible producers and those who had managed to bet on online sales, local markets and direct communication with customers. They decided to act and as a result came out of the crisis even stronger. Consumers also benefited: quality wine at reduced prices, the boom in wine delivery and virtual tastings opened the doors to the world of wine to a new audience.

Take, for example, the Champagne Telmont winery. Located in the heart of Champagne, they seemingly had no right to take any sharp turns, as the region is known for stability, tradition and very strict laws controlling the production process. However, in the midst of the pandemic, Telmont made a bet on sustainability by going public. They eliminated air travel, launched eco-friendly packaging, stepped up digital promotion, and, most importantly, attracted star investor Leonardo DiCaprio. In tough times for the industry, they proved that even in classic Champagne, it is possible to be bold and be able to navigate quickly.

California-based Ridge Vineyards also found itself in a difficult situation at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but relied on digital communications: its team organized online tastings, increased direct sales through a wine club and began educating customers about all stages of the winemaking process, increasing an engaged and loyal audience;

The crisis caused by the pandemic was an occasion to think about how to combine winemaking with living space. In Italy, family wineries like Castello di Ama in the Chianti region have decided to invest in art, local communities, and the restoration of old terraces. In 2020, for example, just in time for the pandemic, the American neo-conceptualist Jenny Holzer had the idea of organizing a Per Ama project at Castello di Ama. Holzer proposed a garden in an unremarkable and unkept corner of the estate next to the San Lorenzo vineyard. Unable to travel to Italy due to the lockdown, Jenny contracted the landscaping work to stone carver Adam Paul Heller and the estate team. All the work was completed in 2021. 

There are stories from the more distant past. I am sure that people who are passionate about winemaking know that there is an aphid called phylloxera, «native» to North America. In the XIX century it almost destroyed all European winemaking. France suffered especially badly. People looked with horror at the destroyed vineyards and did not understand what to do next. At that time it seemed to be the end;

But in the end, French, Italian and Spanish winemakers began to cooperate with British, American and German scientists, deciding that only joint efforts could defeat this scourge. Winegrowers began experimenting with grafting European vines onto phylloxera-resistant American rootstocks. The idea seemed barbaric to many, and the most pessimistic skeptics argued that wines made from grafted vines would never be the same again. Now, a good century and a half later, we know that it was this technology that saved the winemaking industry in Europe. It turns out that we have the opportunity to drink Bordeaux and Champagne thanks to active people who did not give up, began to try and made a breakthrough.

Another crisis is the overabundance of wine crisis in Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s. Back then, due to overproduction, record grape harvests and ineffective agricultural policies, too much cheap wine piled up in Europe. There was literally nowhere to put it, so the wine was simply poured into the ground or sold for distillation. The crisis threatened not only the economy but also the reputation of wine as a cultural product.

A new generation of winemakers emerged and decided to change their production policy, emphasizing quality rather than quantity. Thus, Spain saw the revival of small farms in Priorat, Italy's Langhe (Piedmont) and Etna (Sicily), and France experienced a renaissance of natural winemaking that made natural and slightly wild petnates so fashionable. The irony is that out of the crisis of overproduction was born a modern European wine identity based on individuality, unique terroir and artisanal quality.

Now let's move to California, one of the most famous wine regions in the United States. After the Prohibition of 1920, almost all wineries in California closed down, and some of them converted to producing juice and raisins from grapes rather than wine.

But there were some who didn't give up. For example, Wente Vineyards made the move by obtaining special licenses to produce wine for churches. This way they were able to preserve not only the vineyards, but also the wine culture. After the law was repealed in 1933, it was farms like these that led the birth of the new California wine industry. And already in 1976, at the famous «Paris Blind Tasting», wines from the United States beat Bordeaux and Burgundy, which was a sensation.

Even in Georgia, where wine is part of the national identity, winemaking was in decline after the collapse of the USSR. Everything changed when the revival of kvevri - the production of wine according to the ancient tradition in clay amphorae - began. As a result, today Georgian wines can be found on the wine lists of the best haute cuisine restaurants, and the saying that everything new is the well-forgotten old comes to mind immediately;

Every crisis in the history of winemaking is a turning point, when some people give up and others start to build anew, from scratch. The main lesson to be learned from each of these stories is that no matter what you do or how difficult it is, there is always a way out;