Listen… the Wine is Talking

Reflection No. 41

Looking at life through science, one realizes we are nothing but a commingling of molecules struggling to maintain our individual identity. Space and time are relative, and we can be wherever we want to be. We can leave our bodies, embark on transcendental journeys and see places we have never physically been. What if wine, with its unique ability to deliver sensations that defy time and space, is a conduit to the voice of the universe where all of life began? And the winemaker is something of an alchemist, letting the natural forces of the universe transform grape juice into a powerful storyteller. 

Nothing else in the edible kingdom possesses the ability to speak about its life like wine. But listening to that story requires a willingness give way to the intuitive experience. Distractions of material wealth and machines that make us go faster than nature itself cause us to think before we understand what we feel. And maybe the reason wine has had such a significant role in the history of mankind is because it uniquely has the ability to entice us into surrendering to the deeper part of ourselves and remembering what we know. 

Perhaps wine is a luxury product because the ones who can afford it are those who need to listen to it the most. It is something like telling children to use their words instead of acting out their emotions when they struggle to find language to express what they are feeling—except the problem has shifted from an inability to access words to a dependence on them. What if we surrender to something as simple as a glass of wine, put our egos, words and emotions aside, and listen with our senses? It may be that the molecules of the universe will shift and we will be changed.