This is a sizeable topic, and I expect it'll take many years for me to finish it out. But for now, having been making wines for over a decade, I am starting to understand why I am a winemaker.
I come from a family of artists. Most of them disgruntled for one reason or another. One left his home country of Sweden. One became an engineer. My brother is a story unto himself. Each one of us seems to have been firstly hindered by a commitment to a certain medium. Pen-and-ink, oil, watercolor, ceramics, motorcycles, woodworking.
I don't draw. Doesn't mean I can't. But I never spent the effort and put in the time to learn how. But I did know how to drink. As a teenager, you go through all sorts of phases, most of them preoccupied with quantity rather than quality. But somehow early on I was attracted to the taste of really good beer. I started homebrewing when I was 23, with many failed batches of pilsners, IPAs, and meads to learn from. All homebrewers--if you didn't know it already--will drink just about anything. And I was a homebrewer, I had paid good money for that barley and hops, and damn it, it was going to be drunk.
Unfortunately, my palate couldn't handle it after a while.
I come from a family of artists. Most of them disgruntled for one reason or another. One left his home country of Sweden. One became an engineer. My brother is a story unto himself. Each one of us seems to have been firstly hindered by a commitment to a certain medium. Pen-and-ink, oil, watercolor, ceramics, motorcycles, woodworking.
I don't draw. Doesn't mean I can't. But I never spent the effort and put in the time to learn how. But I did know how to drink. As a teenager, you go through all sorts of phases, most of them preoccupied with quantity rather than quality. But somehow early on I was attracted to the taste of really good beer. I started homebrewing when I was 23, with many failed batches of pilsners, IPAs, and meads to learn from. All homebrewers--if you didn't know it already--will drink just about anything. And I was a homebrewer, I had paid good money for that barley and hops, and damn it, it was going to be drunk.
Unfortunately, my palate couldn't handle it after a while.
Thank goodness you came to your senses! We enjoy your more mature artistic talents. I'll plan to enjoy a bit of Sangiovese this evening myself.
ReplyDeleteI would want to be clear about one thing. There's a saying in the wine industry--I think it was perfected during harvest--that goes, "It takes a lot of beer to make good wine." I have to admit it's very true....just come by our crushpad some night in October when it's 45F at 9 PM after working 12 hours already, and you'll understand the need for cheap calories and beer's analgesic effect on pain.
ReplyDeleteThat beer saying makes me respect winemaking, or envy winemakers, all the more! I have no wine production to show for my beer consumption. I do love Victory Brewing's Hop Wallop. I think it scorched my palate though, because I no longer enjoy Troeg's Nugget Nectar since I got hooked on Hop Wallop.
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