Marcelo Copello, one of the most important opinion makers in the wine industry in Brazil, a partner and ambassador at Wine Tourism in Portugal, has just been nominated for an international award.
Marcelo Copello partnered with Wine Tourism in Portugal in 2015, just when he was celebrating 20 years as a wine professional. Now, with a long award-winning career, he is also the main promoter of the most enriching and unique wine tourism experiences in Portugal with the best and most awarded partners.
During his career, among many awards, Marcelo was elected "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WINE JOURNALIST IN BRAZIL" by the magazine Meininger's Wine Business International, the most respected world publication dedicated to the wine business, as well as "Wine Personality" 2011 and 2013 by the site Enoeventos.
Now, he is nominated for an international award by Born Digital Wine Awards in the category of Best Editorial / Opinion Wine Writing. The inspiring article that earned him this nomination was written for his celebration of 20 years of career, 20 Lessons in 20 years of Wine that we want to share with the wine community through our blog.
With such a long experience in the wine industry, here are the lessons he has to teach us:
20 Lessons in 20 Years of Wine
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Humility
This is the fundamental quality for someone to become a good professional in the wine world. Without humility one does not go very far on the road of Bacchus.
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Communication
In an interview with Hugh Jonhson I asked him what advice he would give to a wine journalist / writer. He said that, more important than having knowledge about wine, is knowing how to communicate. You have to like words as much as you like wine.
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Respect the readers
Respect their taste, their pocket-size, their ignorance, and their intelligence.
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Keep Studying
Read books, travel, experience for yourself in loco and keep in touch with the ones who produce and make it happen. One of the great fascinations of wine is that it provides us with endless discoveries.
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Humor
In a universe with so many traditions and snobbery such as the wine one, it is easy to fall into boredom. Keep up a good mood when reading and writing. There’s such a thing as too much seriousness.
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Simplify without Idiocy
Why complicate when we can simplify? Be suspicious only of the flag of simplification and of facilitation, because sometimes it is followed by misinformation. Let's simplify, but without trivializing, deglamorizing, let alone numbing down.
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Inquire
In wine there are more exceptions than rules. Inquire! Over the past 20 years, virtually all the concepts that I once knew were reviewed. Change the dogmas by common sense and experimentation. Have your taste buds and mind open, without prejudice.
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Ethics
The rules don’t quite matter, you can make your own, but they must be clear and transparent and should be coherently followed.
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Relevance
In a time when the press / media has turned into technology, anyone can have an audience. What matters now is relevance.
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Quantity
Only with a great quantity of information to give us perspective (quantity that in wine is measured in litters) can we have a definite opinion.
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Fads and Tendencies
Be wary of fads, they fade and quickly become outdated. Be wary of trends, they often don’t materialize.
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Trust your Palate
Writing about wine is dealing with personal tastes, starting with yours. You must respect the taste of others and trust in your own.
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Life
Put wine in your life but not life in wine. I know that for some people, wines are all about mathematics, but I prefer to see it as part of life.
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Health
Wine is not a medicine, its main benefit to our health is the well-being it provides, in a broader sense, social and mental.
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Nature
Someone who opens up a bottle of wine in a sophisticated restaurant in a cosmopolitan environment, sometimes forgets that the liquid connects us directly to nature, a place, origin, and to the people who produced it.
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Culture
Drinking wine is drinking culture. Wine is one of the most civilized things that mankind has invented.
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Wine Reflects Us
Wine is just a liquid inside a bottle. The emotion is within the one that tastes it. Wine, because of its long history and great complexity as a beverage, is a perfect mirror of the human being, where we can see reflected our whole culture and ourselves.
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Wine is Context
Wine doesn’t pair well only with food, but also with a context or an ambience. The circumstances influence our appreciation of a good bottle. The occasion itself will complete the meaning of the sensory experience.
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Patience
Foster the lesson of time that wine gives us. Good wines need time and have their right moment, don’t rush it.
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Passion for What You Do
Enthusiasm is a key word that comes easy with a good glass of wine.
You can access the original article here.