葡萄酒行業需要大學生

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.

每年都會有大批大學畢業生陷入迷惘：自己費盡千辛萬苦學來的知識如何施展？雖然無法爲大家指明可以擔任什麼具體職位，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.

科學家們，你們應該不會相信在葡萄酒領域中還有諸多基礎性問題沒有得到解答。儘管人們視葡萄酒的陳釀（age）能力爲難得的品質（其實只有那些質量更好的葡萄酒纔會在經過幾年甚至數十年之後品質有所提高），但對於葡萄酒熟化（mature）過程中到底發生了什麼卻知之甚少。如果有畢業生來對此進行研究，探索出爲什麼有些酒陳釀得這麼好而有些酒卻不能，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.

另一個集合了地質科學和土壤科學領域的研究項目是岩石、土壤和葡萄之間的關係，以及這些因素對葡萄酒的影響，這是一個充滿了各種聲音的研究領域，答案懸而未決。由於特定類型的葡萄酒和生產這些酒的葡萄園好像總是有着一些可以從口感上感知的關係，品嚐者們常在品鑑中寫意地使用很“岩石感(rocky)”的詞彙。由於葡萄園散落着板岩(slate)的碎片，莫澤爾(Mosel)的雷司令(Riesling)葡萄酒有時候被形容爲“板岩般(slaty)”。幾十年來，普伊芙美(Pouilly-Fumé)的葡萄酒都被講英語的人形容做“燧石般(flinty)”，這個詞彙來自這個產區硅石(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。這裏種植葡萄的緩坡含有風化火山岩(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非常誘人的標籤，叫做“火山般(volcanic)”。在加泰羅尼亞(Catalonia)的普里奧拉託(Priorat)產區，有些地勢較高的葡萄園含有閃閃發光的黑色板岩和石英岩(quartz)（這種土壤在當地叫做llicorella），來自這裏的很多紅葡萄酒也都有着一種共同的風味。

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曾經都很喜歡把岩石和土壤詞彙加入到品鑑記錄裏，直到威爾士阿伯里斯威斯大學(Aberystwyth University) 的地質學家阿萊克斯•馬爾特曼(Alex Maltman)教授從科學的角度闡明瞭葡萄酒與葡萄園地質之間沒有直接關係的原因：岩石並沒有風味，而且植物無論如何都不會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.

現在公認的是，岩石和土壤的精確結構對水的可獲得性有着非常大的影響，而水的可獲得性對於葡萄植株來說是至關重要的。不過現在輪到土壤科學家來研究到底土壤構成（而非土壤結構）會對葡萄酒的口味造成什麼樣的影響，或者爲什麼沒有影響。風土條件(terroir)的最重要組成部分有可能是那些存在於土壤和空氣中，且與地勢、氣候和人沒有任何關係的獨特而複雜的微生物種羣。

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.

在這個領域，葡萄酒世界期待着更多研究。誰知道呢？也許有一天，託這些新晉科學家的福，我們有可能有足夠的知識而比較精確地在品鑑辭中使用“礦物質(mineral)”這個詞彙。

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於科學家。總是死氣沉沉的波特酒(port wine)行業最近的動態讓我眼前一亮，看到了歷史學家在葡萄酒行業裏的曙光。二十世紀後半頁的大部分時期中，葡萄酒生產者都在賣力展現自己有多麼精於現代化和科技化，但是這個世紀又出現了反轉，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進行釀造），傳統成爲了重中之重。可以預料到的是，生產者們已經更關注於過去————尤其是自己獨有的過去。

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的橡木桶陳釀波特酒的發佈，這兩款酒都採用手工製作的奢華包裝，目前可以從主要的波特酒商那裏買到————辛明頓家族酒業(Symington Family Estates)和費拉加特聯合公司(The Fladgate Partnership)。辛明頓的格蘭姆祖訓(Graham Ne Oublie)是一款來自1882年的茶色波特（tawny port），由現任所有人的曾祖父爲了紀念自己在動盪的童年時代從蘇格蘭來到葡萄牙而購買————這樣的背景故事已經足夠有吸引力了。

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.

如果說辛明頓家族一直忙於撰寫歷史，那麼他們的競爭對手費拉加特聯合公司（旗下擁有泰來(Taylor)，芳塞卡(Fonseca)和克羅夫特(Croft)）應該屬於一直重寫歷史的類型。在最近的一些研究中我發現克羅夫特波特酒莊的創立時間可以追溯到1678年，這個時間在之前的所有文獻中都是重點提及到的，而且克羅夫特在杜羅產區(the Douro)舉辦的三百週年紀念活動我也參加過，當時的克羅夫特還是大都會(Grand Metropolitan)的一份子（後來大都會也歸於帝亞吉歐(Diageo)）。從最近一份自行出版的專題著作和酒莊的新徽標來看，克羅夫特的歷史現在已經可以追溯到1588年了————這樣一來，它輕鬆地成爲了“迄今爲止仍然非常活躍的最古老的波特酒生產者”。很顯然，在葡萄酒行業，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.

英文專業的畢業生情況怎樣呢？我要說機會也是多如星辰。現在絕大多數葡萄酒的銷售都採用書面語，這些書面語或寫在網頁上和貨架插卡上，或寫在產品目錄上和背標上。這方面我真心希望能夠有受過良好教育的英文專業畢業生介入。

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.

我是背標的忠實擁躉。我知道有些生產商認爲自己的產品足夠醒目，醒目到除了法律規定的信息外，其他任何信息都不需要體現。但是現在的消費者對於知識的渴求一點也不遜於對葡萄酒本身的渴求，他們很樂意瞭解一些自己正在考慮掏錢購買的葡萄酒的相關背景。

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.

在政府的強迫下，超市賣力地告訴我們每一款葡萄酒含有多少個酒精單位(unit)、能夠保存多長時間（當然很多時候這個信息很搞笑）以及應該搭配什麼食物。所以我們這些消費者處於這樣一個境地：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)用文字給消費者傳遞的信息是“富有成熟的鮮榨葡萄和橘子味道，蘊含柔軟瓜類和酸橙類水果香氣，餘味純淨脆爽”，但是反觀拉菲酒莊(Château Lafite)葡萄酒，什麼信息都沒有提供。在這裏我要爲波爾多紅葡萄酒(claret)列級莊園(classed-growth)騎士莊(Domaine de Chevalier)喝彩，因爲它的背標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變革，長久以來一直與消費者分享自己所釀葡萄酒的每一個細節。這樣一來，精通文字的人員需求量將大增，毫無疑問，一些畢業生可以從事相關的工作。