I hosted a wine tasting recently with other wine geek friends and their significant others. However, one of the wine geeks brought her new boyfriend, who knew very little about wine. It was as if she was testing him. Would he be accepting of her lifestyle? Would he convert to being a wine lover too? Another wine lover, after several glasses of wine in him, asked the new boyfriend to share his feelings about what he was experiencing and learning while being surrounded by a bunch of wine encyclopedias commenting about every sip they were taking of the over a dozen bottles we had opened. This was after other wine geeks had shared their personal stories of how they came to love wine so much and for some, work in the industry. Then it suddenly hit me: being a wine lover is like being in a cult.
Defining Cult
The word “cult” comes from the Latin cultus, which simply means “worship.”
These days, it’s often used in a negative sense to describe small religious groups with strange or sometimes dangerous beliefs and practices outside the mainstream that estrange you from your family and friends.
Another common way the word is used is to describe something that is cool or trendy within a limited segment of the population. In fact, others outside this segment of the population might find this thing worthless while others are willing to pay an arm and leg for it.
Cult Wines
First of all, within the wine world, the word “cult” is commonly used in the sense of the last definition above. There are plenty of cult wines or cult producers. These are wines that are beloved by certain types of wine lovers.
Some, like Screaming Eagle (average price $4,300), are cult because some famous wine critic gave it a perfect score once or twice, and suddenly everyone wanted this limited production wine. Nowadays, only the richest can afford it, many of whom may not actually be wine geeks. Despite it being a great wine in terms of quality, it’s often more about the status of having one of the most expensive cult wines for those that can afford it.
On the other hand, there are cult wines at less than 2% of the price of Screaming Eagle that are sought after by wine geeks or natural wine lovers because they are so unique. Wine geeks can get the same pleasure from a $25-50 wine if its geeky enough. For example, Lino Maga’s wines have a cult following among wine geeks because he makes wines in a way they did 100 years ago, which makes it stand out over almost every other wine. However, an average consumer might prefer Yellow Tail for a lot cheaper. Yet, a wine geek is willing to search online and order that special bottle from a shop across the country for 10-50 times more than Yellow Tail. Cult wine lovers and collectors essentially practice wine worship, which is one of the reasons why I feel wine enthusiasts are like cult members.
The labels of Domaine de l’Ecu feature religious symbols mostly from stained glass windows of European churches.
How wine lover practices are cult-like
Full confession here: I am a former church-goer, seminarian and religious studies major. In fact, one of my first wine tasting experiences was with other young seminarians at a weekly wine and cheese gathering while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson’s Creek. Hence, I am as fully versed in the wine cult as I am in other rituals of worship.
As mentioned above, wine and their bottles are essentially worshiped by wine geeks. I, myself, am not the most orthodox wine geek, but I partake. It’s often the sommeliers, who are like priests among the group, that insist on the wine being stored, ritualistically opened, decanted, served and tasted in a certain way. They are the intermediaries between the wine worshiper and their experience with the divine.
Moreover, wine lovers have altars. For example, unopened bottles are placed in chapel-like cellars in perfect conditions for aging while finished bottles and corks of your most prized wines are kept as souvenirs and placed on an altar somewhere in the house. That’s after you take a photo of your bottle and share the good news with all your friends on Instagram or Facebook.
Wines have creation stories that we wine lovers love to talk about before and after we drink a bottle. This wine has a history of the land, the climate, the people that work the land, and how it is transformed into something beautiful for all to be enjoyed. If it’s an old wine, it has a story of what was going on that year. As you begin to learn more about wine, you are asked to share those stories much like church goers take part in the worship service leading prayers and songs or reading scripture. Some of that scripture may be improvised or sometimes it’s read from the Book of Parker, Robinson or Suckling. Wine is often accompanied with music although there are also moments of silent meditation on wine as we contemplate on what we inhale.
Wine lovers also have their own wisdom texts and commandments that we teach each other and practice. Some may say, “Thou shall not put ice in your wine.” or “Blessed are those who open a Chateau Petrus.” We have our own vocabulary and symbolism too. We talk about wines as if they are humans with their own body, legs or tears, being masculine or feminine, and having personality or character.
Sometimes our gatherings are more like Bible studies, where we all give our own interpretation of the story the wine is telling us and connect it to our own experience. We may also try to apply what we learn to our lives or prophesy about the future. A wine worshiper might say: “This takes me to Italy. It reminds me of the dinner I had in Florence with a 2006 Brunello. I would open this wine again in 5 years with a nice juicy steak.”
Another reason wine lovers are like cults is that soon all your friends end up being wine lovers. Either you convert them or you tend to invite people you know who also love wine so that you can open up those special bottles you’re dying to open up. You stop inviting that borderline friend who doesn’t like wine.
As I alluded to in the introduction, wine lovers have conversion experiences. Perhaps your wine shop staff evangelized to you or maybe it was a friend, but every wine lover has a wine experience or specific bottle that forever changed their perspective on wine and converted them into a wine lover. Like born-again Christians, we love sharing our conversion experience. If you recall the film Sideways, the two wine lovers share their wine beliefs and conversion stories.
Wine lovers also have holidays for their faith. In fact, it seems that every other day is some varieties’ special day, like International Carmenere Day or Malbec Day. It’s similar to how Catholics celebrate a different saint every day. Similarly, Beaujolais Nouveau has become an international phenomenon like Christmas that is celebrated by wine lovers and laymen alike.
In addition, wine lovers go on pilgrimages to visit where the wine they worship comes from. These experiences and journeys connect us to the sacred terroir of our wine.
As there are different sects within religions due to differences in beliefs, like Catholic or Presbyterian, there are sects within wine lover circles. Some worship modern, blockbuster wines from places like Napa while others are purely natural wine lovers. On the other hand, some prefer to follow the traditions of the Old World in Europe or even older from the Caucasus and Middle East, drinking wine aged in amphorae.
Some wine worshipers are fundamentalists in their beliefs while others are more progressive. There have been conflicts between sects too. All you have to do is mention a topic like native yeasts, sulfites or Caymus, and sectarian disputes happen intensely over Twitter.
Heading these sects are some of the winemakers, who like religious prophets have their philosophies they pass on to the communers. Some of the winemakers even follow rituals and calendars like Biodynamic producers, who use the lunar calendar to determine specifically prescribed farming rites. These beliefs are passed on to certain wine worshipers who use the moon cycle to determine which day is best to enjoy a wine. These wine lovers are perhaps closest to the real historical wine cults.
Real Historical Wine Cults
Wine or other libations have long been a part of traditional religious practices since the history of civilization.
The Jewish tradition of Kiddush, or sanctifying holy wine after prayer/songs and before a meal (with challah bread) for Jewish holidays and Shabbat, dates back to as far back as the 6th century BCE. It’s a time to celebrate God’s creation and remember the Exodus.
The Christian Eucharist or Communion also comes from this tradition, but also Dionysian rituals. Although the Eucharist represents the Last Supper, which many say was also a Passover meal or at least a Shabbat meal, drinking the wine and eating the bread also represent the blood and body of Jesus Christ,* sacrificed for the forgiveness of the sins of humanity. The latter idea is closer to Dionysian mythology.
Bacchus Worship
Greek Dionysian mythology and rituals are similar in that the god of wine, ecstasy, beauty, art, music, and enjoying life, Dionysus (Bacchus in Latin), or in some stories the King of Thebes, Pentheus, is sacrificed at harvest. In the story of Pentheus, whose name means “man of suffering” in Greek, Penthius is punished by Dionysus for banning Dionysian worship. Hence, Dionysus symbolically kills sorrow and puts back ecstasy in its place.
Dionysus is also bi-polar. One side of him is enjoying life and the other side is darkness, rage and insanity. Thus, his sacrifice allows us to overcome our dark side.
The idea of eating meat with wine in many Near East and Mediterranean traditions, like in the Bible, is ultimately a ritual of sacrifice to God or the gods so both they and the worshippers who eat the meal may be pleased. Kiddush, Eucharist and Dionysian rituals represent that sacrifice and celebration of life too. They are also done in remembrance of being enslaved or in suffering and now free. This can be metaphorical or literal. Today, most of us are wage slaves who need a glass of wine to celebrate our few moments free from work.
Other Hebrew philosophies are also similar to Dionysian traditions. For example, it’s also in Hebrew wisdom texts such as Ecclesiastes. It says that despite the seeming meaninglessness and suffering of life, the injustices you constantly fight against, and all the hard work you do to stay alive, there is nothing better than to seize the day, eat, drink and be merry with friends and family.
Note that drinking is used as a way to connect us to each other and a higher consciousness and joy. It’s not something we do alone to wallow in our sorrows. Studies on health and wine show the benefits of the social aspects of wine and the negatives of drinking wine alone too. Studies similarly show that we like a wine better if it is drunk with good company.
Religious symbolism & names of saints are prevalent on wine labels
East Asian cultures also have forms of ancestor veneration where they offer food and wine (or other alcohol) to their ancestors, whose pictures are up on an altar. The same is true for Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. These are usually accompanied with big meals and drinking with the living family.
Finally, it’s important to recognize the importance of monasteries and missions in developing winemaking techniques and spreading winemaking around the world so that we can practice these rituals. For example, winemaking in Chile and the rest of Americas came from the missions. Plus, Champagne was developed by a monk named Dom Perignon, and winemaking in Burgundy was perfected by the local monasteries.
*Read about what wine Jesus drank.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the reason all humans get together for a meal with whatever type of beverage they prefer, has a similar meaning as these ancient rituals. We take all our memories, hard work, sacrifice and suffering and try to turn it into joy and beauty with friends and family. You don’t have to be a wine geek to partake.
At the same time, wine lovers and winemakers are highly ritualistic, hold strong beliefs and practices, love sharing stories and scripture about the wines they drink, are extremely contemplative and require some initiation to get into our little cult. Ultimately, wine drinking can be a religious experience in so many ways. Tell us your conversion story into the wine cult.