The Passion

At some ill defined point in my growing history of empty bottles, I started to amuse myself with the notion that I too could personally craft a fine wine. I had no idea how, no means to do so, and few clues on where one would begin. Accordingly, I kept my titillation in check. Also, I'd never tasted a "home-made" wine that didn't taste, well, home made. When I did venture forth and tenderly express my secret desire to a girlfriend of southern european extraction (who's father made wine at home), the returning laughter did not inspire confidence or longevity.

I met my wife shortly thereafter. Our attraction was based on many things, none of which related at all to wine, but that would soon change when I met her father.

Those initial meet-the-parents moments are fraught with angst (for me), the need to make a good impression, and the greater need to quickly have a good drink or two and hopefully relax. I already knew that my future in-law was a wine maker. What I didn't know was what to expect in the glass that day. Typical home made wine itwas not! Instead of the fizzy, often sweet, sometimes vinegar fiasco I was expecting, the wine poured that day was rich, full of fruit, balanced, and extremely enjoyable.

Over the next few months, over many glasses of wine, I started to learn the real story of a journey through land, agriculture, determination, and finally wine. It was poetry, the stuff of our conversations, and the view my father in-law had when it came to growing vinifera grapes, crafting wine, and enjoying that drink with "thousands of flowers" among family and friends. His was no pedestrian effort to vinify grape juice, it was passion.

In our little corner of the world, the first viticulturists to successfully grow european grape varietals were mostly immigrants, and my father in-law, coming from southern Europe, was one of the first to raise merlot vines in his vineyard. Like the best winegrowers anywhere in the world, he intimately understood that it all begins in the vineyard and that the quality of the wine is a direct reflection of the quality of the grape. Even the very best vigneron is nearly helpless when facing a bad harvest. Good grapes, however, generally make good wine and without too much intervention from the wine maker.

We had many conversations about where you could and shouldn't grow grapes; where grapes might grow but not fully ripen; how frost could steal your crop one year and not the next; soil types, parasites; and, how proper rootstock adapted a plant to produce best in local conditions. We talked about trellising, pruning, fertilising, mildew, mold, and nearly every detail of good viticulture. It was all about the grape and I hadn't even seen his wine cellar yet.