Jumping Juice Orange 2023 | Riverland, SA

On Jumping Juice...

By popular demand... Jumping Juice. Fruity and easy drinking orange wine. 

Who are we to stand in the way of what people want. Is the wine compelling or particularly interesting? No not in the slightest. Is it tasty and damn drinkable. Yes very much so.

But what does "drinkable" mean. Windex is drinkable but I wouldn't recommend it. Smashable then? A term that screams "drink this as quickly as possible", something I also don't recommend. 

What even is good wine. Does good in wine have some intrinsic universal value. A divine value handed down to us by the wine(writer) gods. Is bad wine just the absence of it being good. 

If Plato is right and evil stems from ignorance are you evil for choosing the wrong wine. Or is Aristotle right, simply by drinking the wine you are fulfilling its purpose, making everything all good(bro). 

Are we able to look at a wine objectively. Are there certain qualities we can sit down and decide will bring a wine to harmony and balance, making it good. The developed consensus of refined palates. Can we look at a wine with a disinterested view and appreciate it non-emotionally. Can we never be invited to this dinner party again please.

Or is it just about how you feel at the time. If you drink the wine and it makes you happy, is the wine good. It helps if other people agree but at the end of the day its about if it is good for you. Tis not scores which engages us to approve. ’Tis sediment. But is that the wine or the company. Would the wine be as "good" in another context.

Are there no universal standards. Should we think of wine like art. Does a bold and creative wine demand to be called good. Is being distinct and unique more important, a wine that expresses the master that made it. "Man I love this sick funky natural wine" said Nietzsche probably.

To be good does a wine have to be more than just a drink. Does a good wine reflect its terroir, as in the place and history of where it comes from. The soil and culture of a people expressed in physical form. Terroir for terroirs sake. Geist AF.

Is it all of that. Is it none. Is it as simple as saying that wine has as much value as we give it. We have our justifications, it may not even make sense, but maybe that doesn't matter. To freely declare something is good, and then it is. We are condemned to sulphur free.

Are we confusing "quality" with "good". Does it even matter. Is it absurd to compare two containers of grape juice. The wine just is. Grapes ferment. We drink it. A wine could be as technical and artistically beautiful as a majestic kookaburra yet still have no meaning and be forgotten. Is that the point. Wine is meaningless but we care and obsess regardless. Is it that engagement which makes a wine good. 

Does it go beyond just engaging. Is it the way we engage with it that makes wine good. Perhaps a good wine is one that creates conversation and moments. The gooder the wine the better it is at being a catalyst for culture. Bland and forgettable is bad, interesting and engageable is good. The creation of shared experiences. The wines we drank along the way.

Is it that impermanence that is important. Wine in bottle is constantly in process much like our memory of it. Do we really remember why we liked. Is that wine even the same. In that moment the wine was good. You can't step into the same wine bar twice.

Does any of this matter. No not really. I saw a rhino once, thing was massive. I think.

- J