“…a world whose logic is based on pleasure and the senses.”
about
Larry Brooks
I believe it was Baudelaire who said his troubles began when his parents parked his pram next to a bookcase, and he thus became ensnared by the dreams they contained.
My parent’s own belief in the written word no doubt led to my childhood spent with my nose in books – the weekly trips to the public library to renew the supply the highlight of each Saturday. And so, I too was caught in the dream of a richer and more exotic realm than the peaceful suburban streets of post war California.
A mandatory Art requirement as an undergrad led me through the looking glass into the wonderland of the visual arts – like the culinary arts it is one you feel your way through. Thinking will be of only limited value when contemplating a Van Eyck. An eventual minor in Art History initiated my lifelong study of aesthetics, and in some way looking at paintings probably led as much as anything to my career as a winemaker.
Music was always there. My father, an avid amateur musician, introduced us early into the joys of both listening to and playing music. Marching band, church choir, symphony hall, and folk festivals all played their parts. Some believe singing is the progeniture of speech, with its rhythms underlying the literary arts.
Music, like the visual and sensory arts is comprehended more by the emotions than the intellect, so it too functions as an excellent training ground for intuitive decision making.
Wine and the gustatory arts I had to teach myself. Home was far from a culinary paradise, but the desire for better was always there. I recall thinking as a child,
“When I grow up - I’m never going to eat tuna casserole again!”
This promise to myself was easily kept. During my penurious youth and young adulthood, I somehow managed to eat and drink well. At that time my mother fondly commented, “You have Champagne tastes on a water budget.” I have ever prioritized pleasure.
Dionysius, and the old gods must have been holding me in the palms of their hands when I fell into winemaking in my late twenties. Here I found the world I had been yearning for. Endlessly varied and rich, embedded in the green growing vines, every vintage someone you’ve never met before - a world whose logic is based on pleasure and the senses.
Musings
Writings
