This time of year in the vineyard, that corner between emergent spring and full-on summer, is the time when you can literally see change and growth before your very eyes. Vines are the most obviously and actively alive now. Luminous and awakening in layered greens, their tendrils and leaves reach ever upwards towards a source of light. This is green time. Cells are bursting with chlorophyll, that green pigment responsible for turning light into energy. I’ll say that again, pigment turning light into energy!
Usually this is my favorite time of year because of the promise it brings. Because of its optimism and foreshadow of a powerful potential to do better, to be better. Perhaps because it hasn’t happened yet, it’s easy to be hopeful that the coming season, governed by natural forces entirely beyond our control, will work to create something momentous and captivating and full of grace, so at the end we’ll be able to craft a wine that’s worth remembering.
This year is already shaping up to be one where optimism feels more vital and the need for being better more urgent. And I am hopeful.
If vines, as they turn light into energy mark time on a daily basis, then wines mark time by the year. Wines give us the ability to travel back in time and to viscerally connect and truly drink in the past. That’s their super power, they are a liquid tool for reflection.
So thinking ahead to vintage 2020, the berries for which are only just emerging, my hope is that we’ll be able to look back and reflect on this season as the one where the world grew fundamentally better and we as a nation and a culture did better, much better.
Let’s keeping working at it.
