This spring I attended the Assemblage Symposium down in the Willamette Valley. From their website “Assemblage is an Oregon-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization aimed at addressing disparities within the global wine industry and at altering the balance of power in favor of under-represented wine professionals including bipoc, lgbtqqia+, and those with disabilities. We offer and promote diversity, equity, & inclusion training for wine businesses and produce an annual two-day symposium in Oregon to foster diverse and inclusive workplaces that thrive and benefit all.” I have a lot to learn about this and I’m trying to “do the work”.

One of the most interesting sessions was by Miguel de Leon (the same guy who was a part of that F%&# terroir seminar I went to last summer in the Finger Lakes). He won a James Beard award for his piece “It’s time to decolonize wine” in PUNCH. It is obvious he studied Linguistics - he has a charmingly disarming but like surgically precise uberlogical way of speaking and presenting an argument. For sure he made me more aware of the white centered-ness of the language I use to describe wine. I’m making an effort to be more inclusive with my descriptors not only because it feels like the right thing to do it’s a more accurate way of describing the wine. He suggested describing texture with different tofus rather than French dairy products. Stop saying Old World New World. Tropical fruits aren’t exotic. We’ve got our work cut out for us, wine is all kinds of wrapped up in European tradition. We use a lot of French words in winemaking because those guys invented and codified the techniques. I hope there is a way to use precise language without “othering” and demeaning folks. Wine is made all over the world and he’s right it’s time to decolonize wine.

Another great seminar was by Gabriela Fontanesi, a recent graduate of UC Davis viticulture and enology school. I follow Matthiasson on Instagram and I saw posts about Gabi when she was an intern there last year. I thought the work she was doing with the vineyard crew was impressive so I started following her instagram account directly. After harvest 2021, she was on a road trip north from Napa Valley to Canada and she stopped in Seattle to visit her cousin and friends. I invited them to come out to my lab. It was great to meet her in person, her enthusiasm is contagious. Her talk at Assemblage was about her experiences contrasting the “image” of fancy rich people tasting wine and having fun in wine country and the “reality” of the vineyard crews leaf pulling in the hot sun or with headlamps in the dark for a night pick. She talked about the differences in compensation and benefits for the the folks in the cellar and tasting room vs the vineyard crew. She is asking the right questions about sustainable farming and environmental health and her work at the intersection of wine and activism is super inspiring .

We also did some great wine tasting both at the seminar and afterwards and it was so fun to meet up with my Oregonian wine friends. A very refreshing couple of days in Carlton, OR this spring.