Jancis Robinson

Trade, Wine

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

The world of wine is better known for its sociability than its profitability. What is needed to make a small fortune in the wine business is said to be a large fortune. The wine trade is considerably more amusing, however, than many others. It routinely involves immersion in an often delicious product, travel to some of the more beautiful corners of the world (tourism), typically with a mediterranean climate, and provides widely admired expertise.

One of the attractions of the wine trade is the people. It has for long attracted a wide range of individualists who, if they were not interesting and amusing before they or their visitors have tasted their wares, seem so afterwards. Producers and merchants alike tend to be generous, and to appreciate the fact that it is difficult to sell or buy wine without tasting and sharing it.