Wisdom in a Glass
Ah! If we could all become wiser from a glass of wine. Well, maybe there’s hope for the human race yet if we could all drink a glass of old vine zin once in awhile. I’ve been reading the newest issue of Wine & Spirits magazine and the highlight is a spirited and informative article written by David Darlington entitled: “Sonoma Valley Zin: The ancient, mixed black of Monte Rosso, Old Hill and Pagani”. Mike Martini—wise wine man and wine industry “survivor” extrordinaire—has a great quote about the character expressed in grapes from old vines. He says:
What old vines give you is wisdom….That wood is twisted and gnarled from any number of things—tractor blight, pruning wounds, animals racing through—that alter the structure of the vines, which have consequently built up phenolics. Phenolics are a healing agent; they’re used in medicine as a bactericide, so any time you have something that creates scars on wood, it races phenolics to the area. It’s a natural compound to protect the woody structure against a hostile environment.You get complexity from that—a bigger array of basic building blocks coming from the vine to the grape, helping to counter excessive oxidation and lots of different things. A younger vine doesn’t have anywhere near that breadth of components.
I love this kind of stuff—this is what gets me out of bed and into the winery or the vineyard most every morning!! (It also reminds me of an excerpt from Colette’s writings that I mentioned in a previous post—please see Old Words as a Reminder of Delightful Simplicity) The concept of grapes and consequently wine as a tonic or medicinal that translates not only soil and weather, but time and the wisdom conferred through the experience of the vine is extraordinary and one, I fear, we have left by the wayside, at least in our culture. Kudos to Wine & Spirits for this kind of much-needed wine writing. Good job also to David Darlington for a very well-written article and for presenting some of the folks who make up, at least as I see it, the true character of the wine industry. After reading the article, I only have one wish: if old vine zin can truly transfer some kind of wisdom through wine, I only wish there were enough for all the folks on Capitol Hill and, needless to say, the White House to imbibe…....