The natural world is a great teacher and sometimes wine can provide a timely lesson.
During this moment of collective respite when we are called upon to remain at home and isolate with our own thoughts, I’ve been wondering what makes a wine of character and how this can relate to us.
Where does character in a wine come from? While lots of things can influence the quality of a wine, character originates in the vineyard. The source of character is in the vine's response to the influences of its environment.
What are the important influences for a grape vine? Not so different from us really – where it’s grown, the climate and quality of the weather, the biome and microbiome…all the living things that come in contact with it…microbes, insects, animals, incredibly well washed human hands. And it is how the vine copes with this complex set of influences that creates a wine of character.
Some vines are particularly sensitive and can’t help but retell everything that has happened to them. Pinot Noir, which has been grown here in the Willamette Valley successfully for over 50 years, is particularly adept at translating its environment, its sense of place. That’s what keeps it so interesting year after year, because the vine expresses itself differently in response to changing influences.
And so can WE.
