Wine needs a new social contract
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2026 • 1 MIN READ.]JANCIS ROBINSON
It’s time for a reset from vineyards to restaurants, says Robert Camuto. A long-time wine writer, Robert recently launched Italy Matters, a Substack newsletter, and he’s kindly allowed us to republish this essay. If you agree – or disagree! – drop a note in our forum. We’re here for the conversation.
You can’t talk with anyone in the wine world nowadays without discussing THE CRISIS: consumption is down, Millennials and Gen Z are turning to cocktails or mocktails, and US tariffs and threats make for (as my grandparents would say holding their abdomens) agita.
Wine crises come and go, sure. But this time feels different because everything else in our world is in crisis. And that all mashes up into the worlds of wine and hospitality.
People are hurting economically, a dollar is no longer worth a dollar, humans are getting laid off to be replaced with AI. Then there are the new synonyms for a world turned upside down: Greenland, Minneapolis, even Canada!
The Old World is dumbstruck. Life goes on, but who knows where it’s going? This moment feels pretty late 1970s. Only now we’re older and don’t have the release of punk rock.
In this climate, the culinary origami of $250 lunches, wine lists that start near $100 a bottle and climb well into four-figures of the cultosphere, and $50 for a glass of Barolo, seem not only out of reach but preciously out of touch.
A bubble? I think we’ve reached the apogee of a half-century boom of wine and food sophistication that’s gone from the corporal and spiritual nourishment of farm to table to a luxury acquisition.
Wine in this century has often been a heated subject or a platform allowing us to show off our exquisite taste and selves. We’ve started tribes around it that can be predicted by reading someone’s demographic profile or tattoos.
I have a problem with that. Because wine and food should never separate people. Wine and food should bring people together.
What I am proposing is a new social contract between wine producers, the hospitality industry and consumers – herewith.
| A new social contract |
| Article 1 There is a glut of special cuvées from wine producers; self-proclaimed ‘important wines’ that in fact aren’t. Legendary wines aren’t made overnight. The wine world doesn’t need more icons but solid ‘good’ wines. Article 2 What is a good wine? Good wines respect their environment, their workers and consumers. They are farmed without pesticides and herbicides (fungicides is a much more delicate question). They taste of fermented grapes and their land, and aren’t burdened by excessive alcohol, wood, or, for that matter, defects from high volatile acidity or Brettanomyces that are sometimes excused as ‘natural’. Article 3 For environmental sustainability, we need to review everything in vineyards from placement and pruning systems to vine stock. As the climate has changed, vine diseases have evolved and vines have not. In that area we need to be open to gene editing (not GMOs) to increase plant resistance. Article 4 Wine in moderation at table can be part of a healthy lifestyle. Article 5 Wine in moderation at table can also build healthy character in our leaders. Taking a quick unscientific look at rolls of abstainers, I see Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Putin and POTUS – imbalanced narcissists all. American presidents with wine cellars started with Washington and Jefferson, leading up to our modern-day, wine-loving presidents from two sides of the political spectrum, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan – all admired for their personal qualities. Article 6 Producers need to be transparent about every ingredient that goes into wine. If a jam producer puts citric acid or gum arabic in their product, they are listed as ingredients. Same should go for wine. Article 7 The hospitality industry cannot continue to milk wine as its cash cow. I know many restaurants are faced with greedy landlords and crazy tax bills. But wine mark-ups are out of control. In US cities, a single $25 glass of wine at a wine bar or restaurant often pays the costs of an entire bottle. The prices are a turn-off that turn wine into something elite and less than accessible. Who wants to experiment at those prices? Article 8 Wine is about food and sharing. Let’s put more focus on the table as a place to enjoy each other’s company. Article 9 We don’t necessarily need more celebrity chefs, but we need more good chefs and great cooks. In Italy, where cuisine has evolved over centuries as a culture to coax the best from nature without waste, the best trattorie and restaurants express their locales and regions with grace and simplicity. Cuisine, like wine, is agriculture and craft, not contemporary art. Article 10 We need a new definition of luxury. Real luxury is not being interrupted by a server who has been trained to explain the technical details of what you are about to eat or drink. Luxury is having a moment of sharing and self-restoration in a world gone mad. We don’t need a lecture. We need a hug. |
Photo at top courtesy Tenuta di Castellaro.