The turmoil that has taken over my world forces me to think painfully, and this does not help. Well, in my opinion, agricultural Europe has gone crazy. I will not consider the implications and aspects of the Ukrainian presence or the profitability of meat production because these are beyond the reach of my intellect. I do not eat meat, and I eat less and less bread.

In these pages, I deal with wine, maybe in a dilettante’s way, but still, I look at the situation from the point of view of a low-income customer of wine shops. For several years, I have been trying to draw attention to the fact that the quite valid defence of tradition by, for example, Nossiter, the attachment to terroir and taste values that are more inclined to aristocracy than to mass consumption, will result in people like me being deprived of access to natural wine.

The rebellion of farmers, agricultural producers, vine growers and honest winemakers leads to a rethinking of values, i.e., higher prices. Suppose we insist on not selling a litre of wine below its production value. If we agree to pour such wine away rather than make it available to customers on the market, we will be left with the knowledge that our product will become available to only 1 per cent of the world’s population.

What’s up with wine?

It is more than just a matter for Picketty or similar specialists. The contradiction between progress and tradition becomes between expensive and cheap, inaccessible and available. The world has come full circle again, and suddenly, I am faced with a time of revolution, after which I don’t know what will remain. It’s appropriate to laugh in the face of Fukuyama prophesying the end of history.