Sometimes all it takes is a shift in timing to bring new intrigue to an otherwise very familiar face or place. This is what was evident last evening, when Carl and I indulged ourselves in a golf cart ride around the property after sundown. I was noticing the eerie light fog which had settled in our stand of oaks, so I grabbed my camera and off we sped into the impending night. Past the stand of trees, we rode up into the vineyard to see the rows of still-sleeping vines disappear into the mist. As it got darker and we zoomed back down the hill toward the winery buildings, the pole lights were glowing in the night, giving an effect reminiscent of some sort of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" spaceship. Around the winery itself, the lights were even more striking, illuminating the buildings, early-budding trees, and a nocturnal visitor. But the coolest effect of the evening ride came once we scurried back behind the winery, to the crush pad. Because of the lights on the front of the winery, it looked as if the sun was actually starting to rise over the tanks and fermentation airlocks at their tops, like chimneys. The shift in perspective was spooky fun. We see these scenes every day, but seldom at night, especially at this time of the year. What "dawned on me," besides the artificial sun over the winery roof, is how lucky we are to be stewards of such an interesting place, where the times of the day and year afford us different way of seeing and reward us with unexpected beauty.
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Yeah, we're mostly wine people. But that doesn't exclude us from also being beer people! (And tequila people...and bourbon people...) Carl first got into fermentation as a homebrewer. It was a hobby he came by honestly, having watched his dad brew beer and soda while he was growing up in Kansas and Illinois. Early in our married days Carl and I would enjoy "Brew and Bake Nights" in our tiny kitchen in Oakland City, Indiana, where I would bake homemade cookies or bread while he brewed his latest batch of beer, mead, or cyser (apple cider mead).
Even after Carl graduated from fermenting things as as avocation to doing it as a vocation, beer still holds a special place in his heart. One of his favorite sayings during harvest is, "It takes a lot of beer to make good wine!" This refers to the practice of grabbing a cold one or two or three while slogging through the work of the harvest and grape processing. We enjoy beer on other occasions and at other times of the year, too. This year, for St. Patrick's Day, we broke out the Guiness (of course!). In the summer, sometimes, nothing seems to hit the spot like a chilled IPA or German Pilsner or Köln-style Kölsch , something which immediately transports us to another place and time. So...cheers to all the beverages of the changing seasons! |
AuthorHi! It's me, Kris. Archives
June 2021
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