A Relationship with Wine
Each barrel of wine brings ups and downs as would a relationship. There are so many times that I feel excitement toward my wines; when I first see the grapes, during the cycle of fermentation, the satisfaction of having pumped the wine into barrels and stepping back afterward to take in the beauty of the winery, when I discover the perfect blend after months of trying, and when a wine I disliked at one time comes out to be perfect.
Frustration occurs mostly during tasting. I taste a barrel that previously tasted wonderful and now there is just something about it I do not like. Wine changes daily while in the barrel and in the bottle. When it is still in the barrel the opportunity of improvement is still there, so when frustrated the answer is to walk away for a while.
I had a small barrel of wine once that I nursed along for 4 years. I had such a range of emotion with that wine, from discouragement (just dump it down the drain) to anger at the time I was spending on this “crappy” wine. In the end, this one wine in particular, was the best wine I’ve ever made. There was no recipe, it is not repeatable, but it was an experience that made me grow as a winemaker.
Recently, I had a barrel leak. The entire barrel (59 gallons of wine) was on my winery floor. The wine was a 2021 Barbera. The sadness was for not only the loss of income, but the loss of excitement over each potential interaction that wine would bring. When someone tastes it and I can tell they like it, when people tell me they love it, when I taste it, and of course when we drink it.
Overall, my relationship with each wine is exciting. Blending red wines is my favorite part of the whole process and is why I painstakingly take the time to name each blend. Check out the fun little video below which shows the final tasting and naming of Felicity. The meaning of felicity is ‘intense happiness’.