Wine is Cultivated, not Made

(Dedicated to the good people of the Bodega Tapiz, Mendoza, Argentina)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters…

God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.

For months upon months, the people tended the vineyards. The vines were carefully pruned and nurtured. Once again they grew into fruit-ion. Irrigation canals brought water down from the mountains into the vineyards. The new sprouts were followed by leaves and then by clusters that would yield the fruits and the seeds. These grapes began before last year’s harvest would ever end. The fruit’s maturation was carefully followed by the agronomo and the enologo. When the time was right, they declared, “Let the harvest begin.” And they saw that it was good.

Other people now descended upon the vineyards. The hard work of the harvest was about to begin. The hands of women and men worked swiftly picking the grapes cluster by cluster. Amidst the dust and under the sun, they would fill box after box, bin after bin with Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Bonarda and Cabernet Franc. When the grapes were all gone, un asado was won. And they saw that it was good.

Drivers aboard their trucks hauled the grapes to the bodega, where yet others unloaded them onto belts. Teams of men and women removed leaves and loose sticks as the grapes made their way towards the tanks where the fermentation would begin. So many have worked to get the fruit to this point and place, and now that their labor was done, they saw that it was good.

Others would now nurture and cultivate the living transformation of the fruit into wine. The enologo with his team would make rounds daily testing, tasting and cultivating the formation of wine. Their helpers would macerate and aerate so that the skins and seeds would have the time necessary to give the wine its color, depth and tannins. When the temperature and the sweetness was just right, a second fermentation would begin ready to remove any rough edges yielding the wine’s delicate subtleties. Wine would be passed to barrels and bottles. This living organism would continue to develop and to grow, and they saw that it was good.

Halfway around the heavens and the earth, divided by what seems like darkness and void, yet another person prepares to celebrate a special night with someone they love. On the way home they stop into a shop. After careful deliberation and discernment, they make a specific selection of wine, a bottle containing the fruit of the labor of these many people. They go home together, and as the dinner is carefully prepared, the wine sits open on the table breathing, recovering and releasing the connection it contains to the land from which it was cultivated. The places are set, the candles lit, the two sit down and the glasses are poured. Swirl, inhale, savor, and as their eyes are opened, they look at each other. They smile, for in that precise moment they sense and see that indeed this is good.