Let class go more than simply “early”. Just met with them, gave assignment, and dismissed as I had in the head planned. Can’t think of anything but the winery, counting inventory tomorrow and other tasks around the property. Not being nihilistic, just pensive I guess you could say. Refusing to let myself stop writing and measuring where I go next in this sommelier trek. No trudge… I guess start studying, right? And researching classes, suggested books…. I wanted to be a student again, oui? Well here I am. Day 1 of my ‘somm’ journey. I’ll get something for tonight, something new… or, taste somewhere after letting the English 100 section go. Think there’s a tasting room on railroad square… or maybe I should just head to Bottle Barn and go home from there, start my examination of whatever bottle I pick from the shelves, or boxes. But I don’t want to start drinking or even tasting wine too early. Already went through some lots with Britt at Punchdown and that was enough to slow me. Should just look around, see what I see, set a budget, and purchase accordingly.
In the shared office, for us adjunct dogs. Won’t miss this, I can tell you. Really hoping this is the last semester teaching at the JC. That is, till I start teaching about wine, wine tasting, writing about wine or blogging about it. 39 next year. THIRTY-FUCKING-NINE. I need a change. Yes, the adjunct gig here at the JC is a nice trickle of cash but the trickle is only once a month. I need more. I need to get closer to wine and explore and study more in its meter. Could use a vineyard walk, right now to be honest. This office is not only uninspiring but utterly deathly so I look at the pictures I took earlier at the crushpad– one of the Rosé, right from its tank, another of my friend Britt pouring some Chardonnay back into the barrel. So now the natural question is once I start the sommelier steps, then what? I don’t know. Again, I’m kind of doing it for fun and not seriously but also with definition and purpose..
Where do I see myself, with wine? Not a winemaker. A writer? Of course. Is that it? No. Sales… marketing… product education… YES, all of that. But why don’t I feel that’s IT? I put myself back in the car with Mom and Dad, driving up that cliffside in Cupertino on the way to Ridge Winery up there in the mountains, where the Monte Bello comes from. I put myself back in the mentality of wonder, curiosity, not knowing what it is I’m looking at and where I’m going. Innocence, in wine’s numbers and intangible calculation. Tempted to just leave campus, get started now. No… owe students more than that. Owe myself more. I’m going to get more… through this wined story. Seeing myself speaking about my story in wine, nothing overcomplicated or too cerebral. Just me, wine, wherever I am. What do I want my readers to take away, or future students, wine student? Life. Find something in wine, or anything out there in the world, that fixes you with new and dedicated, wildly loud life.