Day 3. 08:47. Thinking about my shop, posting Elyse piece, finally. Who else do I want to sell? Everyone, in a word. Everyone has a customer, every winery had a voice and an audience. The obvious selection is St. Francis, with my and my family’s history with them, with my sister as their winemaker. But I want to think outside boxes, far outside boxes… Arista. Kaz. Whatever I want. I don’t need permission to love the wineries I do. So… I select one at a time. Remain not only demand-driven but discover-driven. I discover, as the consummate consumer, then the customer discovers something through me, my site, my shop.
On this third day, I see the why to wine. It’s the people around you. The occasion. The life emphasis, the stories, the literature and recital to it all. As I get closer to 09:00, I anticipate the day. Who I’ll see and what they’ll say, what they’ll buy, then tell self to stop anticipating. Take the day as it delivers itself to this writer’s self. Wine is an entity of spontaneity. Zut! Why didn’t I wake self earlier, get downstairs and writer my daily 3000 wine words. Today, it I hit. The feel of the winery now, contrasted to yesterday’s frenzy, t he day before… teaching me. This peace with my Coltrane tracks in the office of unoccupied cubicles and desks.
Tasting from barrel yesterday, my newly primed and titular wine hone and tone, seeing each character shifted from the day prior. The Pinot, taking a back-step and not as communicative and voltage-intended as Friday. Then the Zin taking my focus from my beloved AV Cab. But, when I went back and tasted both the Zin and Cab, on lunch break, the Cab retook my posture and movement, senses. Wine continues to teach me, situate me in this new morality and philosophy, thinking of my life and everything I’ve done and how the very event of barrel tasting reminds us to live, that time doesn’t wait— Not only does it not wait, it wants to push us aside and keep with the sprint. That’s why I don’t stress when the crowd spill into the tasting room, wanting one more tasting, and another, and another. One day I’ll be so old I won’t be able to stand all day. Huh… even now, me a runner and in fairly fit condition, I’m tested with an all day post on legs behind that counter pouring.
Have to visit the barrels again. See what they want from me. See what precisely they have to say. They could say anything. They change. They wanted to sing different songs these last two chapters. The quixotic envelopment of barrel tasting provokes a writer, at least a writer like me. Wine… each of them. New notes, new intersections, new dimensions and lessons. Wine’s embodies so much more than anything I’m discussing. It’s a reminding symbol. We’re here, and not for long. So, capture everything. Be so into the moment you don’t regard it as a moment, but something else. Something part of you. Didn’t expect such proficient theory from Barrel Tasting.
(3/4/18)