Wine and the Red Carpet: One Take is All You Get

While watching the Academy Awards the other night I started thinking (what an incredibly boring show, even with Alec and Steve, so what else to do?): How are films made? Besides the obvious of a great script and dialogue and scenery and costumes, lighting, etc., and of course the greatly talented actors and directors who bring it all to light, at the end, it all gets pieced together after numerous takes. Get the line wrong? Take 2. Get it wrong again? Take 3. And so on, and so on, take after take until it’s just right. Then, it’s edited down, soundtrack and whatever else applied, and there you go. Oh, if it could be so in the wine industry.

The wine industry has its own kind of “takes”: each season. And these “takes” are not so easy to do over, as you can imagine. Like in film, or any industry, it comes down to time and money, and a year between takes is a long time to wait before you can try again. No, what we present to the world cannot be pieced together after an unknown number of one-more-times. For us, there is but one chance to get it right. Especially the first release. I could go into how that makes it imperative in choosing the right site, the right varietals, the right people to see it through, blah blah blah, but we know that; believe me, we’ve done our homework. And of course there are the number of those out there ready to fire off, “Don’t expect much on your first wine.” Well, truth is, we do. And anyway, would you tell someone, “Don’t expect much from your first child”?! Geez! As usual, I digress…

Of course if one’s not happy with their “take,” the industry has its own fair share of editing techniques that can be applied to a wine: add sugar, add water, remove water, add acid, remove acid, add color, add tannin, remove tannin, add oak chips, add oak flavoring, etc. But for us, all the artistry must occur naturally enough in the vineyard, since our wine is all about what nature gave us to work with, take it or leave it. No borrowed gowns or jewels to dress it up for that red-carpet walk, no botox or push-ups or trendy Jimmy Choos; just an honest representation of the year.

With our first wine release taking place this year, that’s what I found myself thinking. Thanks, Alec and Steve.