To kick off this reunion, those of us in the wine industry can be found at portfolio tastings across the city.  I headed uptown yesterday with a colleague to volunteer at the Domaine Select portfolio tasting and, upon entering, came to find out I’d be pouring through some sensational biodynamic wines from Friuli.  If you’re not familiar with producers like Gravner, Movia, Vodopivec, Edi Kante and La Castellada, you should be; they make some great wines to get into this season.  They produce everything from dry sparkling wines to sweet dessert wines.  And they do it using biodynamic techniques, an approach put forth by Rudolf Steiner and one that goes beyond being organic and harnesses the energy of the planets and the stars.

Grand tastings are always a hoot.  It seems like these importers and distributors invite anyone and everyone to these events and, well, you can imagine there are many people who know, or think they know, a lot about wine.  Some folks discuss pH levels, residual sugars and polyphenols over crudités, while other people are just there to drink.  Nevertheless it’s always great to reunite with friends, taste through some of the current vintages of our favorite producers, and catch up with some of the producers themselves.

Mostly, it’s super to spend time with people who are passionate about wine–lots and lots of people, drinking lots and lots of wine.

For many of us, our love for wine, our joy in sharing it with old and new friends, and our appreciation for the craft of winemaking all worked together to draw us to the industry. Somewhere in some people’s professional journeys, however, many wine professionals seem to have lost their ways. Their thoughts are colored by conflict, their comments tainted with bitterness, and their posture shaped by contempt. They seem to have lost their sense of joy.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to work with many open-minded individuals who approach wine with a high degree of respect, a dose of humility and a passion for the experience. I call these people “soul friends.” I am proud to say that my colleagues at IWM all possess these qualities. On the other hand, I’ve also had the regrettable experience of coming in contact with individuals who can be abrasive, obtuse and argumentative. I call these people acquaintances.

I firmly believe that our lives pose enough challenges and enough conflict that I don’t need to bring this cantankerous behavior into the one area in my life that I look to for joy. Furthermore, I don’t care to share my wine experiences with people who act churlishly. Certainly, many of these people have a considerable amount of knowledge, many hold respectable positions in our industry, and some are even celebrated for their deportment. However, I decided remain pure to what made me pursue wine in the first place: the artistic and communal energy that it fosters.

The haters, those who feed off of the negative energy, have a product whose essence reflects their candor: vinegar.  I say, leave the wine to the lovers. We appreciate it.

“How it’s a living thing…. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it’s an old wine, how many of them have passed on by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I’d opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it’s constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your ’61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline … And it tastes so f***ing good.” –Maya, played by Virginia Madsen, in Sideways

I was in my senior year of college when Sideways came out, and I was religiously studying wine. I was obsessed with wine, and this was one of those quotes that solidified my decision to pursue a career in wine. When I first saw and heard this quote in the film Sideways, I felt the hair on the back of my neck jump, as if a beautiful woman was brushing the nape of my neck with her hand. Virginia Madsen’s character Maya’s quote uses just a few short lines to capture all the important aspects of wine: the harvest, the evolution in the bottle, and the end result. I wanted to jump into the screen and kiss Maya. This scene is one of the most beautiful moments for wine in any film ever made.

Later that year Madsen was on the cover of Wine Enthusiast Magazine. I framed that issue because of this quote. Or mostly because of that quote, anyway.

“Let’s be honest: there’s only one activity more satisfying than drinking good wine with good food; and if you’re drinking wine in the right company, the one pleasure, more often than not, will lead to the other!” –Jay McInerney, Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine

Jay hits the nail on the head, and because of his exactitude, his is my very favorite wine quote. It’s so spot on that I’m very surprised many wine people don’t mention this quote more often. I can remember reading this and saying to myself, “This guy gets it.” Wine is one of those few things that make you feel so warm and cozy inside. It gets the blood flowing. This quote makes me think of two people sitting on a couch next to the fire sipping a glass of their favorite red, each gazing deeply and passionately into one another’s eyes, each savoring the moment and yet looking forward to even more pleasurable moments to come. Kudos to Jay McInerney for giving voice to the sensual aspects of wine and how enjoying it can lead to more than just a hangover.

“Wine to me is passion.  It’s family and friends. It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It’s culture. It’s the essence of civilization and the art of living.” Robert Mondavi, Harvests Of Joy

The anchor to this quote for me is “family and friends.” There is nothing more gratifying to me than sitting around a table with my family and my friends, enjoying great food and wine. It’s one of the most meaningful, nurturing and special experiences in life. But what makes raises this quote and makes it spectacular is how Mondavi doesn’t just reference family, but the whole of human civilization. He seems to suggest that the art of wine is so important because same type of vine grown in two separate areas of the world, handled by different winemaking techniques can produce significantly different results. And these different results shape the culture that made them. Embedded in these two short lines is the rich history of wine, the way wine affected cultures throughout the history of the world, and how the world’s peoples were touched by wine. Mondavi understood that wine was more than just a beverage—wine brings people together in a wonderful, joyous, historical way!

When I meet friends of friends, I often hear upon introduction, “Oh, you’re Rob, the wine guy!” as if I’m some kind of minor celebrity. If my reputation hasn’t preceded me, I announce my occupation and I hear, “You’re in the wine business?  That’s awesome!” And then I spend the majority of the evening spinning like Jeter and fielding questions about wine.  I certainly don’t mind, since I love talking about wine.  But I also love learning about people and would like to hear about their jobs as city planner, NFL coach, explosive demolition manager, CGI animator, or bank CEO. However, any questions about them are waved away, and the topic is steered back to wine.

Living in New York City, I cross paths with a multiplicity of people, but wine so often offers a meaningful connection between disparate individuals. I should stop being surprised. The skinny, grease-covered bike mechanic with dreadlocks down to the middle of his back laughs as he tells me how he broke his bike’s water bottle cage trying to fit one of his favorite Barolos in it.  The Chinese acupuncturist working on my back doesn’t speak much English, but she lights up when discussing the Chianti she brought to dinner with friends. The IT consultant takes a break from project work and speaks passionately about making wine in his Tribeca apartment and how it compares to the Cabernet Franc wines of Friuli.

There are plenty of mythological, mystical, and religious explanations that circulate like incense about how we are all interconnected. But I like to keep it simple, and just offer up a bottle of wine. Wine—or love of it—may be the universal language.