Where wine and (pop) culture meet

There are plenty of ways to choose wine. Numerical rankings have such impact on purchases that, as one producer told me, “If my wine scores under 90 points, it’s impossible for me to sell it. If it scores over 90 points, it’s impossible for you to buy it.” You may choose wine by its label, or shop exclusively in the “under $20” section. If you’re a geek like me, you may look for wines offering methoxypyrazine flavor, (i.e. ‘grassy’ as in Sauvignon Blanc and Sancerre.)

Another way to choose wine is in exploration of wine’s role in human culture. It may be in art, including tomb paintings circa 3,000 B.C.; or politics, such as our boycott of European wine, retaliating for Europe’s 1989 boycott of U.S. beef. It may even involve the biggest pop star in the known universe.

Here are some examples of wine and our culture, a unique union of man, plant and planet.

The roots of American Wine

In the 1500s, when Spanish conquistadors invaded Mexico, they discovered the tomatoes, vanilla and other foods that became prime ingredients in European cuisine. What they didn’t find was wine or grapes to make it. In fact, of all the grapes in all the wine you have ever tasted, not one is indigenous to the American continent. Sure, we have native wine grapes — have you ever heard of Antoinette, Cayuga or Scuppernong? — but they make lousy wine.

Even if wine wasn’t necessary to daily life, it was to each Spaniard’s everlasting soul. When missionaries followed the conquistadors to Mexico, they carried Vitis vinifera, the European vine species responsible for nearly every wine made today. By 1833, a string of 21 missions stretched from San Diego to Sonoma, and more as far south as Argentina, each with a vineyard producing wine for holy sacrament. While they probably made lousy wine by today’s standards, these vineyards formed the basis for our modern wines of North and South America.

The wedding of the century

Celebrity weddings — whether it’s John and Yoko (married in 1969), Elizabeth Taylor and Conrad Hilton (1950), Michael Todd (1957), Eddie Fischer (1959), Richard Burton (1964 and 1975) plus three more, or Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce — offer a window into a culture’s identity, fantasies and values.

The celebrity wedding of the 12th century was more than podcast fodder. The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England in 1152 was pivotal to Western civilization, shaping art, politics, empires and commerce for centuries to come, including the commerce of wine.

The union created an empire that stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees, including the western half of France. A currency based on gold and silver instead of barter was standardized to facilitate commerce, along with a string of fortresses to protect it. New networks established trade of silks and spices carried home from the Crusades, English wool and French wine. Even though Eleanor and Henry’s empire crumbled under their sons (including Richard the Lionheart and John, signer of the Magna Carta), trade continued.

By the 1500s, as Britain’s Royal Navy sailed the world, departing ships docked in western France’s ports for supplies, including French wine. By the 1700s, Britain controlled 25% of the world’s land mass and the markets for French wine were firmly established. France dominated the world’s taste, business and zeitgeist of wine until toppled by California, in the Judgment of Paris wine competition of 1976.

The end of an era

In wine circles, the end of an era may refer to the shift in preference from red wine to white in the U.S. To many others, “The End of an Era” is Taylor Swift’s docuseries of her Eras tour, which ended in 2024. In a brief cameo, the camera catches a bottle Domaine de Terre Blanche Sancerre, a classic white wine of France. It didn’t take long for observant Swifties to snatch up every last bottle imported into the U.S.

While we need to wait for the new vintage of Terre Blanche Sancerre, we can taste the neighboring Sager & Verdier Sancerre along with five other wines Friday, March 27, during my class “Passport to Wine: Old & New Worlds” at The Chopping Block, 4747 N. Lincoln Ave., in Chicago. We will discuss the past and present cultures that produce wines that we enjoy today. For more information and to register, visit thechoppingblock.com.

• Mary Ross is an Advanced Sommelier (Court of Master Sommeliers), a Certified Wine Educator (Society of Wine Educators) and a recipient of Wine Spectator’s “Grand Award of Excellence.” Write to her at food@dailyherald.com.