Earlier this week in a post about the potential of commercial, natural wine, I lamented the fact that natural wine has become identified with simple, light, chuggable wines—the style referred to as “glou glou.”
But I feel better now.
John McCarroll in Punch has announced the end of glou-glou.
However, it seems like the aesthetic of natural wine edifice is moving away from the glou-glou idiom, which, for better or worse, defined it during the 2010s. Call it a goth phase, call it an end to natural wine’s poptimism era, call it a creative explosion, but it’s clear that, at least on the bleeding edge of natural wine chic, we’ve entered a post-glou world.
Apparently, the spirit of seriousness is now upon us. What will this post-Glou Glou world look like?
Natural wine’s post-glou era is going to be fecund, weird and wild—and, I’m sure, oftentimes resolutely dismissive of the past. I’m here for the goth phase, dream rock pivot and the ill-advised metal forays, all of which will, I’m sure, prove that natural wine is far more than crushable and silly.
I’m down with “fecund, weird, and wild.” But goth? As in dark, featureless wines, heavy and lugubrious, walking-dead type wines. Or maybe he has in mind a more futuristic pose—synthetic, burnt rubber and plastic aromas, the smell of Blade Runner or Bowie’s The Labyrinth. Badly made Pinotage will fetch top dollar. Wine tasting attire will include studded chokers and bondage pants.
Are we really going to trade silly for silly.
Maybe I don’t feel better now.
Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 