We’re only a week into this next chapter, and I’m bushed. And I’m also relieved and excited, like I just crossed over on a tightrope, without a net, to the other side. Now what? Well, the now isn’t so much a “hurry up” as much as an “OK, let’s see where this road will take me.”
For one, the whole world of Italian wine has just opened up to me in ways more than I could have imagined. No, strike that, the world of wine, not just Italian. Greek, New Zealand, Argentine, Spanish, Texas, German, you name it. I can go anywhere, do anything, write about any wine from anywhere in the world that I care to. After all, I drink wine from all over the world. Yes, Italy is my first love. Yes, it will always be my first love. But as we all know too well in the 21st century, there is no edict that says it has to be the only love.
That said, I head to Italy in a few days. Vinitaly, to be exact. But this time, not as a crazed tradesman, running around the halls, trying to make sure I see everyone I must see. In fact, I don’t even know what my itinerary is. I just know that I will show up, and see what happens.
And it isn’t anything that causes me anxiety. I have, for years, just wanted to wander the halls of Vinitaly, as if it were the petals of a rose, opening up and displaying its colors, aroma and beauty. Wow, that sounds so pollyannaish, doesn’t it? Sorry, deal with it. I am like a kid in a candy store, and I want to look at, sample and taste everything. Everything.
What, you say? Haven’t you done that all your years in the “business?” In a way, yes, but that came with some restrictions. I was, after all, representing some of them. Well, over the years, many of them. Now, not so much. I am looking to see what it feels like to an unbridled enthusiast, to discover what I have overlooked, ignored and just couldn’t get to.
Not that I couldn’t get around to most of what I wanted to, in any case. But now I can unleash my instincts, and channel the wine gods to lead me along wine paths I might not have had time for. I may not be the new kid on the block, but I feel like a novitiate in this phase.
And with that, to see the magic, the wonder and the infinite possibilities that Italian wine, or wine, or just life has, in this stage, is wonderfully liberating. Oak, no oak? OK. Sulfur, senza zolfo? I can suffer through it. Natural or manipulated? I can manage. Anything goes, there is no wall, no border, no army holding back my caravan. I am free, for the rest of my life.
I am reorganization man, hear me roar. And laugh. And cry. And wonder as I wander. See you on the wine trail.
wine blog + Italian wine blog + Italy W
