Introduction

I fell in love with wine because of literature. My educational background is in literature and philosophy, and I became fascinated by wine and its cultural and social impacts long before I was old enough to taste it. I have worked in production in winemaking for three years, and I have written and edited professionally in other industries for six years. I see many examples of wine writing that look at production from the outside in – wine writers who observe the process and describe it briefly or focus on a particular wine or technique that interests them. I want to bring the perspective of a winemaker, of someone who became involved in production because they couldn’t bear not to be a part of it and only experience it through someone else’s eyes. We who make the wine are both so close to it, every day, and yet in many ways so far from the end product which winds up in the consumer’s glass as a sensory experience. The label may tell a brief story about the wine, and then the drinker moves on. But this conveys little of the web that enmeshes the wine – all the people who have come into contact with it, its journey from an undifferentiated mass into a neat, individual unit for sale and consumption. I love the “why” of things, and the how, and I want to bring this to the consumer in a clear and vivid way. Wine is easily idealized – it is so evocative, so significant. But wine is also messy, a messiness that deserves to be recognized and brought into the light.