Wisdom in a Glass

June 28th, 2006 by Annette

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…….

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