Sideways: Chile
Full article ( https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2024/05/rex-pickett-wine-isnt-a-democracy/ )
On Sideways: Chile, Pickett took a slightly different approach, visiting as a guest of Wines of Chile and Pro Chile, the latter of which is a government organisation, and they offered him the concept of “why don’t you bring Miles and Jack down here?”
He said although he understands the groups wanted a creative work, which would “reap the benefits of the Santa Ynez Valley”, but he was also “trying to find a story”, and had to “find the characters”.
Pickett explained that he “did the tour” but that it “wasn’t really doing it for me”, and, just like Miles, he had to “discover and break through on my own.” In his search for his own take on the Chilean wine scene, Pickett went to its independent wine producers movement called MOVI, especially Derek Mossman’s Garage Wine Co.
He continues: “I broke away a little bit in Chile and started to discover MOVI, which is movement of independent vintners.
“I met Derek Mossman and some others, who helped me a great deal. I got to meet these real off-the-grid winemakers. I’m always interested in the small ones, the producers who are doing it for the love of wine. And they’re not really doing it for the money.”
Through this experience he was able to also discover some other winemakers, including one that he was particularly passionate about.
“And they’re doing stuff with certain indigenous grapes”, he explained, “And that’s what interests me, it is the discovery of the small people who are often off the edge off the grid.”
This is a core concern of Pickett, as we can see. For him wine isn’t simply a manufacturing process of a mass-produced beverage. It is much, much more than that. And it isn’t always the small producers who are doing the exciting things.
