Learning to love wine again in the era of Patrioligarchy
I was hoping for a haiku, but the words were too long. It was that time of the year again, for my annual examination of my long-standing relationship with wine. What, you say, can one have a relationship with a liquid alcoholic substance? Well, if one can have a relationship with someone who lived and died over two thousand years ago, why not wine too? After all it was His first miracle.
But that was beside the point. What was really set before me, in that examination of that “relationship,” was a deeper look into the nature of material reality. Anyone who enters into the world of wine thinks, on first glance, that wine is wine, much like water is water. But upon spending years studying wine, one might realize that wine isn’t just wine, it is a lot of other things. It is culture. It is sustenance. It is history. It is agriculture. It is business. It is beguilement. It is seduction. Yes, it is, all of that. And more.
And then….
As the arms swing along the dial of the timepiece, we come back around to it. Live long enough and you’ll see what I mean: the moment when wine, once again, becomes just wine.
Right now, we are all tied up in the tariff tussle. It’s another of the many diversions others foist upon us, for their amusement and for their enrichment. But it is a distraction. Wine is just wine.
In this era of Patrioligarchy we must regain our footing. The overlay that is currently vying for all of our attention (and all of our fears) wants to erase our shared culture, history and obsession over wine. But it cannot be sustained. Wine is just wine. And wine will find a way.
There is a reason why humankind and the grapevine have journeyed together in time on this earth. We are bound together, we share the sunlight, drink in the water, and change through the seasons, and through time we evolve and age and cycle back to where we came from. We are kindred spirits.
I had an email from a long-time reader. “Good Lord, Alfonso, is this the way it is going to be? Will you never write about Italian wine again?”
To all of you, I’m sorry. This is what is has come to. It is what it is. Wine is just wine. Just as I am just who I am.
