Wine and Enchantment

We appreciate wine because of its sensory properties and alcoholic effects. But they aren’t the whole picture. That “aha” moment when wine becomes more than a beverage requires the collaboration of atmosphere, food, friends, and the occasion as well. An excellent wine tasted under humdrum conditions will be quite good when tasted analytically, but it is unlikely to have the magic, the capacity to enchant, that it might have when the occasion is also worthy of celebration

Wine is  valuable because the range of expression made possible when yeast transforms grape juice is fascinating even when that range includes flavor notes that don’t appeal to you. A wine can express a sense of place, provide a geography lesson, or bring you into contact with another culture even if it doesn’t score 100 points. Flavor is important but so is culture; it’s the culture of wine that contributes to its ability to enchant.

The appreciation of wine is a collaboration needing food, friends, culture, and an occasion to reach its fullest expression. In that sense it is like performance art in which the condition of the audience controls the meaning of the occasion. I suppose it must be a source of frustration for the winemaker that she is seldom present when the performance takes place.