I am not on Twitter, but if I were, these are tweets I would have sent from today’s first series of seminars at the 29^th Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, the nation’s largest wine-related trade show, expected to draw about 12,000 registrants and 875 exhibitors to the Sacramento Convention Center before it ends Thursday:

There’s much anguish about slumping wine sales in the U.S. Thus, a panel on how dated, unoriginal and non-inclusive the language of wine is in the U.S. It’s too focused on apples and oranges, not so much on durian and rambutan, so goes one line of thinking, ignoring that we are talking of wine in the U.S., not Thailand. But I rather liked a suggestion that the language of wine be updated to be more culturally relevant. Why not, suggested one panelist, compare the principal grapes of Champagne with members of Destiny’s Child – Chardonnay being Beyoncé Knowles, Pinot Noir being Kelly Rowland, Pinot Meunier being Michelle Williams. I know nothing of the backstory, but this approach could be just the ticket to get younger folk who aren’t showing much enthusiasm for wine to give it another look. I am not sure it moves beyond older wine terminology accused of being exclusionary, intimidating and elitist, but it is fresh.

I heard just one early reference to a recent survey that found that the only demographic buying more wine these days is people 60 and older. This kind of revelation generally is accompanied by exclamations along the line of, “My God, what are we going to do to get younger people to buy wine?” At the same time, most people recognize that younger people are pretty damn smart. Thus, why should they be buying wine? They clearly are aware that their parents and grandparents – people 60 and older – have assembled all these massive wine cellars and aren’t likely to live long enough to open all those bottles. That wine well may be the only family heirlooms those children and grandchildren are really keen to acquire, so why should young people be investing in wine today?

Much, much talk about how vintners need to exploit social media ambitiously if they hope to ever again sell another bottle of wine. This is a refrain that has been repeated at Unified gatherings for at least the past five years. And what winery doesn’t have a social-media presence? Yet, wine sales remain sluggish. Just consider TikTok. Any winery personnel looking to TikTok to increase wine sales haven’t actually looked at TikTok. The inane messaging of wine emanating from TikTok, in fact, could explain why wine sales among young people are in the doldrums. TikTok might not be so much the solution as the problem. See above: Young people are pretty damn smart.

During daylight hours, not much wine itself is consumed at Unified. As the sun starts to set, however, that’s another story. At tonight’s opening reception, the wine that most impressed me was the Yokayo 2016 Sonoma County Rockpile “Buteo” Cabernet Sauvignon ($50). This is one profound yet readily accessible Cabernet Sauvignon – big and luscious but refreshing in its rich fruit. The color is a deep purple/garnet, the smell is loaded with suggestions of fully ripe cherries, the weight is all about muscle and definition, the mouthfeel is an unusually plush silk, and the flavor runs to ripe cherries with threads of tar, mint and eucalyptus, all of which add up to a take on the varietal exceptionally layered and long.

Tomorrow, the day kicks off with the always highly anticipated “State of the Industry” presentation. Expect much “gloom and doom” to emanate from that session, though I am hoping at least one presenter will note that the wine trade is in pretty good shape, economically and culturally. And if not, I think I will be able to find plenty of optimism among the exhibits, where a record 875 or so exhibitors are gambling with initiative, creativity and optimism that the American wine trade is going to hang around and continue to grow. I mean, in a sneak preview of exhibits today, I just have to know more about that massive $350,000 mechanical grape harvester I saw.