Paywall be gone!

In an attempt to block writer's block, I'll be removing your reader's block.

To my paying subscribers, I thank you very much. But from now on, anyone can get it. It would delight me (maybe even move me to keep writing about wine) if you would direct your contributions to communities surviving war, wildlife protectors, social justice networks, or whatever feels most important to you in dystopian times. For example, if you want to support communities surviving genocide in an ancient wine region, you can follow Farrah Berrou’s work and support her efforts.

In this moment, is it appropriate to write about wine? The answer is likely different for every writer. Part of my work requires me to skim the climate news every morning, as it relates to wine and agriculture. One of the more distressing things happening in U.S. climate news right now is that the Colorado River, which 40 million people rely on, is at risk of running dry in the coming years. What will happen when the loss of water destabilizes these communities? We don’t have to wonder; Octavia Butler has already answered this question.

Is the wine industry—or any industry in its present state—poised for a sustainable future? I think it’s possible that the word sustainable has been used so many times that we’ve forgotten what it means: that in its present state, it supports our and future generations’ survival and access to necessary resources. Is the wine industry—squeezed by supply chain issues, water rights, trade regulations, rising fuel costs, wildfires, and increasingly frugal consumers—playing a sustainable role in our lives?

My answer? The industry isn’t. But the wine is. If we remove the industry from the wine industry, what is the wine like?

This isn’t meant to single out wine above all other products; I think that everyone should be questioning the role their respective industry plays in a sustainable future and whether its existence is justified in the face of environmental risk. Perhaps it’s not that said industry shouldn’t exist, but that it shouldn’t exist in its present state. The cool thing about wine is that we know it flourishes in our lives without industrialization. What other things did we hold dear before it was mass-produced? In other words, looking back at history, what do we know will continue to exist without the incentive to hoard money?

To be clear: this newsletter isn’t ending, but lately I’m not able to enthusiastically abide by a content calendar, and frankly, I’m not making enough money to justify the time I devote to it. I hope that by removing the paywall, I free myself up to write whatever wine—and other worldly—stories come next. Just like wine, I was a writer before there was an option to make money doing it. Thanks for being a reader

Grapes at a tavern Brussels

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