“Winemaking should stop thinking only about wine”. The provocation by enologist Andrea Moser

In recent years, we have often talked about the figure of the modern winemaker, portraying it as a fundamental profession in the wine world. However, the skills required have had to extend far beyond the cellar, with winemakers often becoming managers, communicators, and much more, while still remaining within the wine sector. But now, there are those who are raising the stakes, arguing that “winemaking should stop thinking only about wine”. This provocative proposal comes from South Tyrolean enologist Andrea Moser, who spent many years at Franz Haas, then nearly a decade as director of the Kaltern Winery, and is today an independent producer with his “temporary wines”, as well as a manager and consultant.
“We have trained generations of professionals convinced that the only possible career path was making wine. For many years, that was natural, but today this paradigm is no longer sufficient. Winemaking - argues Moser - must become a discipline capable of generating innovation far beyond the boundaries of the bottle”. And, beyond the boundaries of the wine sector itself. “The winemaker of the future should first and foremost be a scientist of fermentation and biological processes. They could design new ingredients, add value to agricultural by-products, develop innovative foods, and work on improving the sustainability of production systems. All of this also means bringing new ideas into wine, because those who look beyond their origins bring innovation back to where they came from”, still says Moser.
His provocation derives from the belief that the wine industry crisis can’t be addressed only through new commercial strategies or communication campaigns: “The problem will not be solved by selling the same product more effectively. What is needed is a cultural revolution. We must start training professionals who are capable of questioning existing models. Major innovations happen when established patterns are broken, not when they are protected”.
According to Andrea Moser, the future of winemaking therefore lies in redefining its identity: “less rigidity in approach and one-dimensional thinking, less sterile attachment to old stereotypes that have become dogma, less of a discipline serving wine exclusively, and more of a scientific platform capable of cross-pollinating different sectors and bringing back into the wine industry the innovative capacity which today appears indispensable. Respect for tradition is a value. Reverential respect, however, becomes a limitation. If we continue to regard wine as the only possible horizon, we risk preventing precisely the kind of innovation that the sector needs today”.