Wines and snobbery

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32639, 22 June 1971, Page 2

Wines and snobbery

The biggest problem facing wine growers and merchants in getting more people to drink wine was “de-snobbing” it convincing people that they do not have to be “expert” drinkers, said Mr P. M. F. Sichel, of New York, a senior partner in the Sichel group of wine firms, who yesterday arrived in Christchurch on a week’s working tour of New Zealand.

“Our family has been in the wine production and wine merchant business for 200 years in Germany, France and the United States. It takes about 10 years to become a good wine taster, and many more years experience and maturity to become an expert taster,” Mr Sichel said. "However, given the opportunity, 80 per cent of people would become good wine tasters. SWEET FIRST “But wine drinking is a personal thing. The ordinary person begins with sweet wines, particularly when young—like candy appeals to kids. When you grow older and more selective, you tend towards dry wines . . . you appreciate the depth, the elegance, the charm of a wine. ... “It is a matter of taste. The general rule is white wines with fish and white meat, or poultry, and red wines for red meat and cheese.. But where there is no choice, or a strong preference, white wines, particularly German ones, go well

with red meat and with cheese.

“The sooner you begin drinking wine the quicker you become selective and the more you enjoy your wines. That is why the greater interest of young people today in wines is so exciting,” said Mr Sichel. BIG CHANGES The Second World War broke down the conservative, Victorian custom of drinking wines with meals—for the upper class only; newspapers, radio and television had continued the breakdown, he said. Higher standards of living, more affluence, ease of travel, and a desire to taste, rather than just to eat and drink, had all played their part in more people taking wine with meals. “STILL STUFFY” “The younger people Want to experiment in taste—rather than to drink alcoholic

beverages just to get a glow. Older persons have still a stuffy attitude towards wine, some of them still feeling that you have to have the knowledge and experience to overcome the mystique of wine drinking.” Mr Sichel was bom in Germany in 1922 and educated there and at the English public school, Stowe. He entered his family’s wine business in Bordeaux in 1939 as an apprentice; fled to the Pyrenees when the Germans entered the city in 1940, and later emigrated to the United States. He enlisted in the army and rose to the rank of captain during service in North Africa, France and Germahy. After the war he joined the United States Foreign Service. He returned to the family wine business in 1959, and lives in New York for eight months every year. PART OF DIET “Families in Europe drink wine as naturally as they eat. I am referring to still wines, of course, not cheap fortified wines bought by the gallon as a means of becoming intoxicated. Table wines nave vitamins and minerals and are part of the diet. Wine is the oldest mediciqe known. "Wines add to the enjoyment of a meal and, appreciated, become an integral part of a meal. Where I was brought up, you would no more drink wine to get a glow than you would eat to get a glow,” Mr Sichel said. The increasing interest in wines went hand in glove with the increased interest in finer foods, said Mr Sichel. He will address a meeting of the Christchurch Wine and Food Society this evening, and will visit several vineyards and vinters during his stay in New Zealand.