“Are you still doing your wine blog?” I
cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard that lately. Usually followed by “For
some reason, I haven’t been getting them.” Which was news to me, as I hadn’t realized
that I was “sending” them to anyone. Maybe once upon a time, Blogger had a
process by which that happened, But if they did, long ago they stopped that.
And seeing as I am not invested in technologically figuring out how to deliver
my weekly blog to folks, I’m a bit bewildered. Actually, it doesn’t really
matter to me. It is a web-log, after all. It is something I do as a weekly
exercise, for myself. Anything beyond that is gravy.
Not that I am not grateful for the folks who read On the wine trail in Italy, some now for almost 19 years. But in today’s
atmosphere, there is too much distraction from really important things for one
to remember to check in on this little ‘ol blog, which is less about wine and Italy
and more often about whatever is happening right in front of my eyes.
Which leads me to the larger path I am on. For almost sixty
years I have had a camera in between me and that path, and I’ve been lucky
enough to capture what are, to me, some meaningful images that, again, for me,
seem to have transcended time and place. And now that I am approaching that random
moment, I am working on a book, of sorts, in which some of the most significant
images I will be assembling into a book. It’s part of a project I am tentatively
calling “2025-1965 In Retrospect.”
This rumination got started when I was at a cocktail
party for a couple who just moved. They are wine lovers and aficionados. Great wine
was flowing, from JJ Prum to Clos de Vougeot to Corton Charlemagne to Mouton
Rothschild. It was a veritable who’s who of great wine and winemaking.
I found myself
trying everything but the riesling hit the spot for me. A 23-year-old Spätlese
that was still vibrant. But that was beside the point. At this stage in my
life, wine just isn’t the center of it. If fact, now that I look back on my
career in wine, I feel a little embarrassed that it took so much time and
energy. At the time I felt I was on a mission to bring Italian (and other fine)
wine to the world. Now it seems like a bit of wine folly to have magnified that
quest (and my role in it!) to be so virtuous. Silly me. It was a livelihood,
and it was lively. But was it really what life is all about?
So, that’s where I’m at. I plan on writing this blog
for another year and get to 20 years. At which time I’ll re-evaluate any
further going on. It’s been fun, it is now a deeply ingrained habit, writing
weekly. But I’m not sure where it will go from there. If anywhere. Pop a bottle
you’ve been saving for too long. Empty your cellars. As Pablo Neruda once said,
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.”
wine blog + Italian wine blog + Italy W
