葡萄酒行業(yè)需要大學(xué)生

At this time of year many recent graduates will be wondering what to do with their hard-won degrees. While I cannot point them in the direction of specific vacancies, I can assure them that the world of wine needs many of their skills.

每年都會(huì)有大批大學(xué)畢業(yè)生陷入迷惘：自己費(fèi)盡千辛萬(wàn)苦學(xué)來(lái)的知識(shí)如何施展?雖然無(wú)法為大家指明可以擔(dān)任什么具體職位，我倒是確信在葡萄酒這片天空下，他們可以盡情發(fā)揮才能。

 

 

Scientists, you would not believe how many basic questions about wine remain unanswered. Although wine is treasured for its ability to age (better-quality wines are virtually the only consumables that can improve over years or decades) we know remarkably little about what actually happens as wine matures. It would be wonderful to put some graduate minds to work on this in order to work out exactly why some wines age so well and others don’t.

科學(xué)家們，你們應(yīng)該不會(huì)相信在葡萄酒領(lǐng)域中還有諸多基礎(chǔ)性問題沒有得到解答。盡管人們視葡萄酒的陳釀(age)能力為難得的品質(zhì)(其實(shí)只有那些質(zhì)量更好的葡萄酒才會(huì)在經(jīng)過幾年甚至數(shù)十年之后品質(zhì)有所提高)，但對(duì)于葡萄酒熟化(mature)過程中到底發(fā)生了什么卻知之甚少。如果有畢業(yè)生來(lái)對(duì)此進(jìn)行研究，探索出為什么有些酒陳釀得這么好而有些酒卻不能，那真是再好不過了。

Another area for research by a combination of geologists and soil scientists is the much-discussed but undetermined relationship between rocks, soils and the grapes and then wines that result from them. Because there seem to be tasteable correlations between certain sorts of wines and the vineyards that produced them, tasters have liberally applied “rocky” terms to wines. Mosel Rieslings, often grown on vineyards littered with shards of slate, are sometimes described as “slaty”. For decades the wines of Pouilly-Fumé have been called “flinty” by English speakers, a reference to the flinty look of the silex soils found in vineyards there.

另一個(gè)集合了地質(zhì)科學(xué)和土壤科學(xué)領(lǐng)域的研究項(xiàng)目是巖石、土壤和葡萄之間的關(guān)系，以及這些因素對(duì)葡萄酒的影響，這是一個(gè)充滿了各種聲音的研究領(lǐng)域，答案懸而未決。由于特定類型的葡萄酒和生產(chǎn)這些酒的葡萄園好像總是有著一些可以從口感上感知的關(guān)系，品嘗者們常在品鑒中寫意地使用很“巖石感(rocky)”的詞匯。由于葡萄園散落著板巖(slate)的碎片，莫澤爾(Mosel)的雷司令(Riesling)葡萄酒有時(shí)候被形容為“板巖般(slaty)”。幾十年來(lái)，普伊芙美(Pouilly-Fumé)的葡萄酒都被講英語(yǔ)的人形容做“燧石般(flinty)”，這個(gè)詞匯來(lái)自這個(gè)產(chǎn)區(qū)硅石(silex)土壤燧石般的外貌。

Similarly, many of the wines grown on the decomposed lava on the slopes of Mount Etna seem to have some discernible warmth and pungency, which it is awfully tempting to label “volcanic”. And in Priorat, Catalonia, there is a flavour common to many of the red wines from vineyards high in the sparkling mix of black slate and quartz known locally as llicorella.

埃特納山(Mount Etna)也有相似的情況。這里種植葡萄的緩坡含有風(fēng)化火山巖(lava)，釀造出的葡萄酒讓人能感覺到一些熱度和辛辣，這種感覺被貼上了一個(gè)非常誘人的標(biāo)簽，叫做“火山般(volcanic)”。在加泰羅尼亞(Catalonia)的普里奧拉托(Priorat)產(chǎn)區(qū)，有些地勢(shì)較高的葡萄園含有閃閃發(fā)光的黑色板巖和石英巖(quartz)(這種土壤在當(dāng)?shù)亟凶鰈licorella)，來(lái)自這里的很多紅葡萄酒也都有著一種共同的風(fēng)味。

We winos were all happily relating rocks and soils to our tasting notes until geologists such as Professor Alex Maltman at Aberystwyth University in Wales pointed out why, scientifically speaking, there could not be a direct relationship between a wine and the geology of a vineyard. Rocks have no flavour and plants have no direct communication with them anyway.

我們這些葡萄酒老饕們?cè)?jīng)都很喜歡把巖石和土壤詞匯加入到品鑒記錄里，直到威爾士阿伯里斯威斯大學(xué)(Aberystwyth University) 的地質(zhì)學(xué)家阿萊克斯•馬爾特曼(Alex Maltman)教授從科學(xué)的角度闡明了葡萄酒與葡萄園地質(zhì)之間沒有直接關(guān)系的原因：巖石并沒有風(fēng)味，而且植物無(wú)論如何都不會(huì)與它們有直接的交流。

Everyone is agreed that the precise structure of rocks and soil has a huge influence on the all-important availability of water to the vine. But it’s over to the soil scientists to examine exactly how the composition, as opposed to structure, of the soil may influence the taste of a wine. Or not. The most important component of terroir – that is nothing to do with topography, climate or man – may be the particular complex of micro-organisms in the soil and atmosphere.

現(xiàn)在公認(rèn)的是，巖石和土壤的精確結(jié)構(gòu)對(duì)水的可獲得性有著非常大的影響，而水的可獲得性對(duì)于葡萄植株來(lái)說(shuō)是至關(guān)重要的。不過現(xiàn)在輪到土壤科學(xué)家來(lái)研究到底土壤構(gòu)成(而非土壤結(jié)構(gòu))會(huì)對(duì)葡萄酒的口味造成什么樣的影響，或者為什么沒有影響。風(fēng)土條件(terroir)的最重要組成部分有可能是那些存在于土壤和空氣中，且與地勢(shì)、氣候和人沒有任何關(guān)系的獨(dú)特而復(fù)雜的微生物種群。

The world of wine awaits more research in this area. Who knows? One day, thanks to our new scientists, we may know enough to use the tasting term “mineral” with some precision.

在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域，葡萄酒世界期待著更多研究。誰(shuí)知道呢?也許有一天，托這些新晉科學(xué)家的福，我們有可能有足夠的知識(shí)而比較精確地在品鑒辭中使用“礦物質(zhì)(mineral)”這個(gè)詞匯。

But it’s not just scientists we need. Recent activity in the usually sleepy port wine trade has opened my eyes to the opportunities for historians in the world of wine. For much of the second half of the 20th century wine producers were falling over themselves to demonstrate how modern and technologically proficient they were. But this century has seen a sharp about-turn, with a big return to historic methods (horses in the vineyard, bottling by phases of the moon), and tradition being valued above all else. It is no surprise then that producers have become more interested in the past – their own in particular.

但是我們需要的不僅限于科學(xué)家?？偸撬罋獬脸恋牟ㄌ鼐?port wine)行業(yè)最近的動(dòng)態(tài)讓我眼前一亮，看到了歷史學(xué)家在葡萄酒行業(yè)里的曙光。二十世紀(jì)后半頁(yè)的大部分時(shí)期中，葡萄酒生產(chǎn)者都在賣力展現(xiàn)自己有多么精于現(xiàn)代化和科技化，但是這個(gè)世紀(jì)又出現(xiàn)了反轉(zhuǎn)，很多釀酒人重拾了歷史上著名的方法(包括在葡萄園中使用馬力和參考月相來(lái)進(jìn)行釀造)，傳統(tǒng)成為了重中之重?？梢灶A(yù)料到的是，生產(chǎn)者們已經(jīng)更關(guān)注于過去————尤其是自己獨(dú)有的過去。

In the past month alone we have seen the launch of two 19th-century ports aged in wood and now available in luxury handcrafted packages from the major port shippers, Symington Family Estates and The Fladgate Partnership. The Symingtons’ Graham Ne Oublie bottling comes from a cask of 1882 tawny bought by the current generation’s great-grandfather to commemorate his arrival in Portugal from a troubled childhood in Scotland. It could hardly have more backstory.

僅在不久前我們就見證了兩款十九世紀(jì)的橡木桶陳釀波特酒的發(fā)布，這兩款酒都采用手工制作的奢華包裝，目前可以從主要的波特酒商那里買到————辛明頓家族酒業(yè)(Symington Family Estates)和費(fèi)拉加特聯(lián)合公司(The Fladgate Partnership)。辛明頓的格蘭姆祖訓(xùn)(Graham Ne Oublie)是一款來(lái)自1882年的茶色波特(tawny port)，由現(xiàn)任所有人的曾祖父為了紀(jì)念自己在動(dòng)蕩的童年時(shí)代從蘇格蘭來(lái)到葡萄牙而購(gòu)買————這樣的背景故事已經(jīng)足夠有吸引力了。

If the Symingtons have been busy writing history, their rivals at The Fladgate Partnership (Taylor, Fonseca and Croft) could be said to have been rewriting history. In the course of some recent research I see that the start date of the Croft port house is no longer the 1678 that features in all previous literature and whose tercentenary celebrations in the Douro I enjoyed when Croft was part of Grand Met (later subsumed into Diageo). According to a recent self-published monograph and the port house’s new logo, Croft now dates from 1588, conveniently making it “the oldest company still active today as a port wine producer”. Clearly there are great opportunities for historical researchers in the wine trade.

如果說(shuō)辛明頓家族一直忙于撰寫歷史，那么他們的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手費(fèi)拉加特聯(lián)合公司(旗下?lián)碛刑﹣?lái)(Taylor)，芳塞卡(Fonseca)和克羅夫特(Croft))應(yīng)該屬于一直重寫歷史的類型。在最近的一些研究中我發(fā)現(xiàn)克羅夫特波特酒莊的創(chuàng)立時(shí)間可以追溯到1678年，這個(gè)時(shí)間在之前的所有文獻(xiàn)中都是重點(diǎn)提及到的，而且克羅夫特在杜羅產(chǎn)區(qū)(the Douro)舉辦的三百周年紀(jì)念活動(dòng)我也參加過，當(dāng)時(shí)的克羅夫特還是大都會(huì)(Grand Metropolitan)的一份子(后來(lái)大都會(huì)也歸于帝亞吉?dú)W(Diageo))。從最近一份自行出版的專題著作和酒莊的新徽標(biāo)來(lái)看，克羅夫特的歷史現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)可以追溯到1588年了————這樣一來(lái)，它輕松地成為了“迄今為止仍然非常活躍的最古老的波特酒生產(chǎn)者”。很顯然，在葡萄酒行業(yè)，歷史研究者大有施展拳腳的空間。

But how about all those English graduates? Opportunities here are legion. Most wine nowadays is sold by the written word, whether on a website, as part of a “shelf talker”, in a catalogue or on a back label. Here’s where I’d like to see an invasion of well-educated English graduates.

英文專業(yè)的畢業(yè)生情況怎樣呢?我要說(shuō)機(jī)會(huì)也是多如星辰。現(xiàn)在絕大多數(shù)葡萄酒的銷售都采用書面語(yǔ)，這些書面語(yǔ)或?qū)懺诰W(wǎng)頁(yè)上和貨架插卡上，或?qū)懺诋a(chǎn)品目錄上和背標(biāo)上。這方面我真心希望能夠有受過良好教育的英文專業(yè)畢業(yè)生介入。

I am hugely in favour of back labels. I know some producers think their wines are too smart to need any information other than the bare legal minimum. But consumers nowadays are as thirsty for knowledge as they are for wine. They love being given a bit of background to what they are thinking of buying.

我是背標(biāo)的忠實(shí)擁躉。我知道有些生產(chǎn)商認(rèn)為自己的產(chǎn)品足夠醒目，醒目到除了法律規(guī)定的信息外，其他任何信息都不需要體現(xiàn)。但是現(xiàn)在的消費(fèi)者對(duì)于知識(shí)的渴求一點(diǎn)也不遜于對(duì)葡萄酒本身的渴求，他們很樂意了解一些自己正在考慮掏錢購(gòu)買的葡萄酒的相關(guān)背景。

Supermarkets fall over themselves (under government pressure) to tell us how many units a bottle contains, how long we should keep it and (usually hilariously) what we should eat with it. We therefore have a situation in which the less smart the wine, the more we are told and vice versa. According to the back label, Blossom Hill Moscato will deliver “ripe aromas of freshly crushed grape and tangerine with soft melon and lime fruit and a clean crisp finish” – but about Château Lafite we are told nothing. Bravo to classed-growth claret Domaine de Chevalier, which puts the precise assemblage on back labels. Others who try harder include Torres of Spain and Ridge Vineyards in California, which have long shared every detail of their wines with us. And they are literate to boot. Some graduates clearly work there.

在政府的強(qiáng)迫下，超市賣力地告訴我們每一款葡萄酒含有多少個(gè)酒精單位(unit)、能夠保存多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間(當(dāng)然很多時(shí)候這個(gè)信息很搞笑)以及應(yīng)該搭配什么食物。所以我們這些消費(fèi)者處于這樣一個(gè)境地：越不醒目的酒越能告訴我們更多信息，反之亦然。比如花山酒莊(Blossom Hill)的麝香(Moscato)用文字給消費(fèi)者傳遞的信息是“富有成熟的鮮榨葡萄和橘子味道，蘊(yùn)含柔軟瓜類和酸橙類水果香氣，余味純凈脆爽”，但是反觀拉菲酒莊(Château Lafite)葡萄酒，什么信息都沒有提供。在這里我要為波爾多紅葡萄酒(claret)列級(jí)莊園(classed-growth)騎士莊(Domaine de Chevalier)喝彩，因?yàn)樗谋硺?biāo)上有精確的葡萄品種配比。西班牙的桃樂絲(Torres)和加利福尼亞(California)的山脊莊園(Ridge Vineyards)也在非常努力地推進(jìn)變革，長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)一直與消費(fèi)者分享自己所釀葡萄酒的每一個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)。這樣一來(lái)，精通文字的人員需求量將大增，毫無(wú)疑問，一些畢業(yè)生可以從事相關(guān)的工作。