WINE (GREATER THAN) POETRY

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As (allegedly) both a wine expert and a poet, I have an unique vantage point in this business.  And contrary to my inner mandate to make wine less of an elitism and more universal, it’s a bold statement to make:  wine is greater than poetry.  Certainly there is a confounding and awe-inspiring poetic aspect to wine.  My first introduction to Verité back in the year 2000, I likened it to the Pablo Neruda poem, “Body of A Woman.”  Body of a woman/I will persist in your grace/my thirst, my boundless desire, my shifting road… You get the idea.  This was one extraordinary experience.

And that’s the key word:  experience.

Long ago it seems while visiting the tasting room at Verité, a winery nestled deep in the heart of Alexander Valley, California, I experienced what could only be described as a temporal shift while tasting one of Verité’s amazing reds.  My drinking companions and I, seated at a table in the middle of the tasting room, became the center of the universe, and all else fell away from existence, with each and every sip.  If there was a window into the life of a transcendental deity, this was certainly it.

There is more than just poetry to wine.  It is art.  It is science.  It is a living-breathing, sentient entity that exudes a life force not unlike your closest friend or most passionate lover.  There is a synergy – when it is agreeable to you – that is unparalleled.

Of course, this can be the very reason wine is seen as elitist at times.  It differs from beer, which is simpler, easier to understand.  A few mates after work heading off to the boozer to plough the froth off a couple, down a few pints, and let go of the day’s difficulties.  Wine – most people perceive – needs more attention, more focus, more deduction.  Yet it doesn’t have to be this way.

You get home, you grab a bottle of something, pull the cork, pour a glass, turn on some music, and unwind.  No hassle.  No heavy concentration.  Just pour a glass and enjoy.

Yet this is where it CAN get different.  Wine is a transportation device.  It carries you some place.  Whether it’s an ideal in your mind, or someplace farther out into the ethers, you almost find yourself basking in the Tuscan sun, or along the shores of Provence.  Perhaps a chateau in the Bordeaux, a Bodega in Spain, or seated on the dock by a cabin in the woods of California or by the mountains in Washington State.  You could be anywhere, just by the aromas and flavors in your glass, right now.

The dedication and devotion of the winemaker, the vineyard manager and the cellar rats of any winery anywhere on this earth pour their hearts and souls, instill their dreams, and paint their masterpieces in each and every bottle, year after year.  They write poems, sing songs, sculpt, photograph and chronicle their life stories – all you have to do to see it, to hear it, to feel it – is pour a glass and taste it.
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In this crazy world we live in, wine presents us an oasis, a getaway, a sanctuary.  And this is why we do what we do here at our stores, and stores all around the world.  We sell you something beyond commodity.  We give you a story, a different tale, of someone else’s journey in this world.  It’s the best job on earth.