IMPENDING WINE BANS AND A DRUNKEN WORLD VIEW

I was reading Spectator online and in one of their most recent articles, “U.S. Government Puts Hold on Montepulciano and St.-Emilion Wines,” two of my favorite wine regions facing potential ban in the U.S. Why you say? Ah, for the sake of purity. Seems that while the FDA has been failing consumers in protecting the American public from toxic pharmaceuticals, foods and other products from infiltrating the U.S. market, the Tax and Trade Bureau has decided that in the midst of speculation that some Vino Nobile di Montepulciano producers are using grapes from Southern Italy in their Sangioveses, and that the French government has recently overturned the 2006 reclassification of St.-Emilion chateaux, they are going to protect American wine drinkers by assuring us that we are save from adulterated wines.

I am not sure if all this hullabaloo is really worth the effort, considering that there are far bigger fish to fry in the global market, not to mention the ongoing war in Iraq, tensions between Russian and Georgia, the crisis in Darfur, and all of the other sociopolitical calamities going on throughout the world. Not to delegitimize the issue discussed in the Spectator article, because people should be held accountable in the case of fraudulent products, however, I am not sure if a complete ban will solve the problem. Perhaps convince the producers in question to declassify their wines so that they can at least continue to do business, and those that wish to purchase the wines, can do so. Resolve the problem using the latest technologies, and clarify the situation expeditiously. Sounds easy enough, right?

Perhaps we could actually apply that methodology to the global tensions surrounding us. War, crime, terrorism – why not try to find peaceable solutions instead of force? It’s hard not to separate Life from politics these days, being inundated with sniping political ads and PowerPoint presentations on CNN, MSNBC and the evening news programs. Sometimes, it’s hard to drown all that out, no matter how much wine you drink. Although maybe, if we could sit all the leaders of the world down at a table, pour some wine down their throats, and stuff them with a fabulous meal, maybe they would be too sated to exacerbate hostilities.

Forgive me, you caught me philosophizing.