Each year, dozens of high school and college teams gather together to compete in building complex machinery to complete simple tasks. This national competition, held in celebration of cartoonist Rube Goldberg, encourages the creation of far-fetched contraptions to accomplish straight-forward tasks such as hammering a nail or turning a page.

See the Rube Goldberg website for this and other images.

These machines take a circuitous route to getting things done, instead of simply moving from Point A to Point B, there are quite a few stops along the way.

In the context of the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, such round-about, comical approaches can be a lot of fun, but why do we seem to take a similar tack when explaining simple concepts about wine to our students?

As a refreshing antidote to encyclopedic tomes, Tom Stevenson has written “a [wine] book for people who don’t want to read about wine.” Stevenson’s newest book, Buy the Right Wine Every Time, The No-Fuss, No-Vintage Wine Guide, offers a simple, straightforward approach and focuses on wines that are generally inexpensive, widely available and consistent from year to year.

This is a distinct departure for Stevenson, who is well known for writing the (encyclopedia tome and) go-to-guide, World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparking Wine. Presumably much more at home drinking the likes of Bollinger and Taittenger, for this project, Stevenson found himself tasting Barefoot and Turning Leaf and seems to be impressed with these and several other big brands.

The first part of the book emphasizes wine by style, while in the latter section (referred to as the “A-Z of wines”), individual wines are listed alphabetically (naturally) with a few key elements included:

• What is it?
• What does it taste like?
• If you like this, then try with confidence…

The very first entry in this section is the Adami Prosecco Bosco del Gica, which Stevenson rates as Recommended. (His other ratings are To Die For and Highly Recommended). As a consumer-oriented wine book, I would say it is Highly Recommended.

Interestingly, or at least of interest to me as a wine educator, while the label clearly indicates that the wine is Prosecco Superiore DOCG (and not just Prosecco DOC), Stevenson makes absolutely no mention of this fact in his text.

And, in the wine style section, none of the wines listed include the appellation or even country of origin. Truly a case of less is more.

Truthfully, having worked with the Prosecco Superiore consortium, I feel a duty to explain and clarify the differences between the two, but in all honestly, does the average consumer really care as long as the wine tastes good (to them) and fits within their budget? As much as I hate to admit it, the answer is no.

Yet, I do not advocate for a full abdication of complex principles; merely, for the use of clear explanations when they are necessary and appropriate. In this regard, detailed dissertations on appellation laws might be best left for trade training, but significant concepts that link wine and place should be explored, keeping context and audience in mind when guiding such conversations.

Similarly, at a recent seminar on “Why Terroir Matters,” author and educator Marnie Old questioned whether we should be using the term terroir with consumers, noting that discussions of “dirt” tend to turn people off.

In response, Bordeaux merchant and estate owner, Edouard Moueix suggested that, “[Terroir] is a term that was invented to describe something that can’t be easily defined,” but was adamant that terroir is indeed vital to the dialogue on wine. Instead, he proposed that we need to do a better job illuminating this term for consumers to help them understand how terroir distinguishes one wine from another in its identity as well as to clarify that it does not, in fact, mean “dirt.”

Admittedly, a tall order, but as a wine educator I am up for the challenge. What do you think?