Great wine requires a mad man to grow the vine, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to make it, and a lover to drink it.
The very best of vineyards is the cellar
Short boughs, long vintage.
Wine is earth's answer to the sun.
The people who make the greatest wines in the world, they love their dirt, they pick it up, they coddle it, they kiss it, they put it in a jar and it sits on their mantle in the living room, because they know. They know.
Plant no other tree before the vine.
My grandparents in Istria had a frasca, which is about the most basic kind of grocery/restaurant. They sold wine from their own vineyard. I took control of the vineyard, hired a local winemaker, and bought another winery in 1996. We had our first commercial vintage in 1998.
Plant no tree sooner than the vine.
The vinery is not made with blessings, but with hoes and spades.
With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse
I want to get more involved with the vineyards I have all over the world and to spend more time with the people who work in them.
You can grow grapes in almost any part of the world. You just have to develop your palate enough to realize wine is an expression of the place where you make it. You don't have to take over the world; just be an artist and express your area.
I started looking all over for vineyard sites. I studied the conditions that make the best pinots. In the New World, you have to find the great pieces of land. Cool climate counts, but distinctive soil matters more than anything.
Today's winemakers still worry about quality.
Graciousness, courtesy, compassion-this is hesed. Hesed is a quality that extends even to the animals and the land. The sabbath rest principle of Hebrew law included the needs of the livestock (Exod. 23:12). After seven years of planting and harvesting, the land itself needed "a year of complete rest" (Lev. 25:5). Even the soil of the vineyards was not to be overtaxed by planting other crops between the rows (Deut. 22:9). The oxen that trod out the grain were not to be muzzled so that they could eat while they worked (Deut. 25:4). And so on.
My goodness, everyone is planting grapes, even a neighbor with only five acres.
Any man who, having planted a vineyard, has not yet reaped the benefits should do so at once, so that he does not die in the struggle and leave it for another to enjoy.
