Wine
My grandmothers both lived full lives, but died quite differently. I remember playing bridge with my Gran-Gran the night before she had her first stroke. She won! Even after her second stroke, her mind was sharp as a tack; we’d sneak whiskey sours to her in her hospital room and “wheel” her out to watch the Fairhope Mardi Gras parades. Her mind lasted a lot longer than her body.
Grandma Horton, on the other hand, had dementia, and was in excellent physical shape. She loved it when we visited her, and one visit would often turn into 30 or 40 due to her lack of short-term memory. Grandma’s body outlasted her mind.
In simple terms, the life of a wine is comparable to that of our lives. We start our lives with fresh bodies and un-formed minds. As we reach our prime, our bodies are still functioning and our minds have developed fully. A slow and peaceful decline hopefully marks the third and final leg of our lives. Do we have a soul, or a spirit that lives on? Perhaps we are grapes in the vineyard, each generation representing a new vintage. The actual grape vine anchored to the earth links each vintage in a fashion analogous to a soul.
In the winery, we are transformed from grape to wine, from gamete to newborn, from simple to complicated. If you taste a wine from a barrel sample, yet to be bottled, you would be hard pressed to fathom what the wine will become. Only a proud mother or winemaker, staring down at their pruny, softheaded baby, can glimpse into their eyes and dream of their future accomplishments. A wine only a mother could love!
With nurturing, genetics, and a dose of luck, these wines make it into the bottle with all of the right ingredients. For red wines, the right balance of fruit, tannin, alcohol and acidity, with some dodgy terroir tossed into just to piss off the realists. These wines will start off with all body and no brain; tannic, acidic, tightly knit, and just a hint of underlying fruit. There is no hint of bouquet or finesse at this young age. They are simple, stubborn, and invigorating!
Some red wines (and reportedly Chateau Grillet) go through a “shut down” period, where they basically don’t show very well for awhile. Everyone goes through a slump in his or her life. For me it was four years of hard partying on an island with few redeeming qualities during that time (the exception being that I met my wife at one of those parties)! The point is we can’t judge wines during their slump (or me for that matter). The best thing to do is lay them down in the cellar, check on them from time to time, and ask the neighbors how their kids are doing.
If the wine slumped, it has returned; refreshed, focused and finally wearing shoes again. Now there may be some signs of a bouquet and, if all went well, the burnt brain cells add a certain complexity to his personality (spends long periods of time staring off into the distance). The youthful tannin and color pigments have coagulated and fallen out of solution. The fruit, once buried beneath tannin and acid, emerges in all of its glory. There are layers and layers of flavors, tactile sensations, and aromas! This wine is in its prime!
Life doesn’t end at 50 and wines don’t disappear once they peak. The best settle into a slow, enjoyable decline. This is when you’ll see wines vacationing in motor homes, golfing and migrating to Florida to play beach blanket bingo. The wine has lost most of its body, but makes up for it with exquisite complexity, nuance, and finesse.
Not all wines age this gracefully, but if you look hard, you can usually catch a glimpse of something resembling a full and dignified life. Once the wine is gone, you always have your special memories; snapshots to remember them by. You’ll find yourself trying a recent vintage of that same wine someday, and catch yourself saying, “This reminds me of….”. The grape vines see to it that the spirit of the wine lives on.
Matt Devan would still rather not be judged, even if he isn’t in a slump. E-mail him at wineguy@lagniappemobile.com
Contact Matt Devan at wineguy@lagniappemobile.com.
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