I made the right choice

(The view from Domaine Weinbach in Kaysersberg, Alsace)

As I listen to Bon Iver and type this blog I'm reflecting on the various decisions that I've made to get me to where I am at this exact moment. There are days every year that I think about all the "what if's". What if I would have gone to medical school? What if I'd not done Teach for America? What if I'd stayed a teacher? That is the most difficult question I ask myself a lot. Well, I made my decision in 2002 and have have only made glances at those paths from my past. The past ten days have been life affirming, changing, and wonderful. Though I am thoroughly exhausted and running on pure adrenaline I have never been more alive. The people I have met, the stories I have been told, the places I have seen, and the wines I have tasted have made the world smaller, my life more exciting and my mission clearer: to spread the gospel of wine and persuade anyone that will listen that a life without food, wine, and passion is sad. No matter that you may or may not have had the chance to sit with growers and winemakers does not remove you from the story. You, the drinker, are the final link in the story of wine. Without your experience the wine is really nothing but bottled grape juice with some history locked up inside. Once you pull the cork, unscrew the cap or pop the top the final part of the story begins to unfold. Then it is your job to continue that story with your friends and family. To share the experience, the pleasure and the moment in time when all was right with you and your world. Wine may "just" be fermented grape juice but for thousands of years people have pushed themselves to make it better, to extract more from the solid (both good and bad) and perfect a craft that countless numbers have been drawn to.

I cannot express how wonderful I feel at this moment (though I pine for my wife every hour of the day so that she could enjoy this with me) but I plan to provide you all with as much as I can squeeze out of my heart. In my ten years of doing this I have never been brought to tears by a wine but in under two weeks I have wept in joy for the experience and flood of emotions that various wines have had on me. It may be difficult to understand how a wine could do that but it is as simple as a piece of music, a painting, a poem, novel or anything else that pulls out the emotion deep inside you and releases in such as manner that you cannot control the tears streaming down your face as the other tastings in the room scramble to see if you are all right. No, I am just fine and could not be any more content than to let the tears fall and the joy fill my heart as I experience something so surreal that I hope and pray that each and everyone of you can experience this in some form or manner.

Wine is not just juice...it is an expression of a single place and time that can reveal much more than just aromas of berries, earth and oak. I look forward to sharing you more of the nitty gritty details of the trip, the producers and the wines but this post is all about the emotion derived from my life with wine. 

Photos (starting top to bottom):

1. Johannes Strub

2. The Donnhoff's

3. The slopes of the Mosel River Valley

4. Joseph Leitz

5. August Kesseler

6. Colette and Laurence Faller

Comments

[Wine Club Guy]

Congrats on Teach for America. My wife's a school counselor and I love to see education and wine together. Beautiful pics!