Harvest 2012: The Reign of Bacchus Begins Again

Last weekend was the most exciting weekend of the year for true wine aficionados and, more specifically, the Times Ten family. Harvest came a bit early this year. It usually comes around the end of August or the beginning of September, but this year it was August 3-5 and 10-12.

Friday we drove down to Alpine, Texas from DFW. We got a bit of a late start, surprisingly enough not because of me, but we managed to make pretty good time. We arrived at our hotel in Alpine, changed, and departed for the vineyard.

Cathedral Mountain is truly a magnificent sight. Those of us born and raised Texans are accustomed to extreme heat, but somewhere in the southwest corner of our great state lies a land rich with both beauty and enough elevation to alleviate even the hottest Texas sun. Here lies Cathedral Mountain vineyard:

In the vineyard we searched for natural crystal formations until the sun began to set. With pockets and hands full of dazzling rocks, we headed back to the barn. Following dinner and fellowship in the barn, and a bonfire after a glorious sunset, those of us Times Ten staff lucky enough to have made it out for the weekend hung around for a while watching the stars. It was truly a spectacle. I’ve traveled more extensively than many people, but never in my life have I seen so many stars that I could easily get lost in an ocean of diamonds by simply looking up. It was, in a word, breathtaking.

We retreated back to Alpine for a good night’s rest before waking on Saturday for the big day. I suppose I expected extreme heat, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the temperature quite mild for our day working in the field.

Something to note about the Times Ten family: Our employees and customers rule! We had so many volunteers this year it was incredible. There are so many people who believe in and love what we do that they were willing to drive all the way across one of the largest states in the country, at their own expense of both time and money, to take part in the creation of our wine. This fact says volumes about the kind of people with whom we have the pleasure of associating. It’s no wonder that I refuse to leave Times Ten despite being a lawyer by day. These people are fantastic.

We spent the morning in the vineyard picking grapes and making new friends. No one complained. Not once. Not about the work or the stickiness of the juice on their hands or of the sun giving (at least some of us fair-skinned types) a reddish glow to our skin. Not a single complaint. In fact, conversation among the field workers was upbeat and pleasant, talking of different wines and memories at Times Ten, whether in Dallas or in Fort Worth. I listened jealously to the stories of people who have been involved in our operation from the very beginning. I listened to stories from past harvests and about friendships formed between perfect strangers by one simple mutual love: wine.

By 11:15 am, we had harvested seven tons of grapes. This was easily the quickest and largest harvest for our vineyard yet, and we were graciously rewarded with a long early lunch back at the barn. Admittedly, a nice cold beer (okay, maybe two) was a refreshing complement to lunch, and the carbs were enough to keep me going for the remainder of the afternoon. In the afternoon, we finished pulling all the grapes from the vine by 2:45 pm. In total, Saturday’s labor force harvested TEN TONS of grapes!

For most of us, our work day had seen its end, but for others, it was just beginning. Both in the morning and afternoon, as the field workers would complete a ton of grapes, they would be brought back to the barn in the back of a pick-up truck for the de-stemming process to commence.

To de-stem the grapes, they are basically shoveled through a machine which spits the stems out to the side…

Stems of the grapes

leaving only the grapes for the winemaker to turn to wine…

2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

Smaller stems remain on the grapes, but they serve a role in the wine’s creation, helping with the tannins and giving the wine its own unique character.

Following the de-stemming of the grapes, our winemaker was at work immediately, beginning the coolest chemistry assignment ever. Sulfites were added to the grapes to control bacteria, and the grapes were turned in the bins to ensure equal distribution of the sulfites. Less than an hour after the picking had ended, a refrigerated truck arrived at the barn to load the grapes up and return them to our wineries in Fort Worth and Dallas where, for the next 2-4 years, they will slowly be transformed into a work of art.

Shaped by the soil, the sun, the rain, the hands of willing and loyal volunteers, a winemaker’s instinct and knowledge, and the passage of time, these grapes will become something unique, part nature, part mankind, and completely beautiful: wine.

After witnessing the love, passion, and companionship that went into this creation, no one will ever be able to convince me that wine is not more than a mere drink. It is absolute truth: “Water separates the people of the world; wine unites them.”

“Come boy, and pour for me a cup
Of old Falernian. Fill it up
With wine, strong, sparkling, bright, and clear;
Our host decrees no water here.
Let dullards drink the Nymph’s pale brew,
The sluggish thin their blood with dew.
For such pale stuff we have no use;
For us the purple grape’s rich juice.
Begone, ye chilling water sprite;
Here burning Bacchus rules tonight!”

~Gaius Valerius Catullus

Singing a Different Tune: Dear Oklahoma, You Don’t Get to Have it Both Ways

Obviously I’m passionate about wine, but I’m also a highly analytical person. Last winter, I published an article addressing the direct shipping of wine under the dormant Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

(Note: If you would like view that article, simply download the following PDF and go to page 180 of the file: http://law.tamu.edu/Portals/0/docs/cnoriega/Law%20Review%20Volumes/Law%20Review%20vol%20%2017.2.pdf)

The 2005 U.S. Supreme Court opinion Granholm v. Heald held that discrimination between states and protectionist efforts with respect to alcoholic beverage control were not constitutional under the dormant Commerce Clause. I argued that the Court’s opinion was not limited to manufacturers of wine, but extended throughout the industry, applying equally to all three tiers in the prevalent three-tiered distribution system that states use in their alcoholic beverage regulation. During the course of my research, I cited a popular FTC report as well as studies conducted by the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, an organization for businesses at the second tier of the system, the retailers. The general gist of my argument would favor giving retailers the right to ship wine across state lines to customers who chose to order from outside the state in which the retailer is located. One of the arguments in favor of that idea is the idea that fine wine is something that is not highly abused and also not frequently sought-after or consumed by minors. Make no mistake, I still stand by my research and believe wholeheartedly that wine, a product that I view as a work of art, is not the equivalent of its oft-abused counterparts.

However, this week the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued an opinion that determined that a new bill, which would permit voters to decide whether grocery stores in the state should be able to sell wine, thereby making it more accessible for people to purchase while buying groceries, does not violate the Oklahoma Constitution.

Now, I don’t present myself as knowing the first thing about the Oklahoma Constitution, so the validity of the opinion is not mine to either support or criticize. Indeed, the court’s opinion favors what I believe in: a free market on wine with limited restriction. What troubles me, however, are the arguments coming from the current retailers in the state. Under current law, the Constitution restricts the sale of wine quite a bit. Only locally-owned, licensed retailers are permitted to sell it. If approved by voters, the new rules would expand consumers’ options for where to buy their wine. The result would be the creation of a new kind of license available to supermarkets, grocery stores, and warehouse clubs 25,000 square feet or larger which would allow them to sell wine. I see from an economic standpoint where small wine retailers would possibly be at risk were the voters to favor the new license. What I do not understand, however, are the resounding arguments coming from these businesses that, only a few short years ago, they were rejecting. Suddenly there is a newfound concern by these businesses that expanded accessibility of wine will increase both substance abuse and underage drinking.

But the most disturbing aspect for me is the minority’s disregard for the U.S. Constitution. In his dissenting opinion, Vice Chief Justice Tom Colbert stated, “The economic advantage which the proposed measure would provide to large grocers, most of which are owned by out-of-state corporations, is a radical change from the locally-owned, sole proprietor or partnership approach that the voters of Oklahoma have adopted to regulate the sale of liquor.”

Wait a minute, Your Honor. Are you telling me that the very same anti-protectionist arguments that the retailers used in 2005 to promote their right to direct ship to out-of-state customers is now, all of the sudden, invalid when applied to large-scale retailers coming into the state? So I don’t get it. Is economic protectionism acceptable or not? Oh, I’m sorry, it must just depend upon who stands to gain.

My point is: You can’t have it both ways, retailers. The dormant Commerce Clause bars protectionist measures all the time, not just when it’s convenient for you.

By my count, it doesn’t matter whether this thing is constitutional under the Oklahoma Constitution or not. If the current system is set in place to protect in-state businesses from out-of-state corporations, it violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States and, accordingly, must be changed.

Wineaux vs. Wino

oe·no·phile

noun \ˈē-nə-ˌfī(-ə)l\

: a lover or connoisseur of wine

French œnophile, from œno- (from Greek oinos wine) + -phile -phile

First Known Use: 1930

 

First off, I am not, in any sense of the word, an expert on wine. There are many people that are wine experts. They are known as sommeliers. They devote much of their lives to understanding the wealth of information about wine and using that knowledge so help the rest of us maximize our enjoyment of it. Though I am exceedingly grateful for their service, I am not one of those people. Thus, under the aforementioned definition I fall under the “lover” category.

My educational career has spanned about 25 years because I have always worked to support my addiction to knowledge. During that time, I worked in dozens of restaurants, bars, and clubs in order to pay my living and tuition expenses. Those experiences were the ones that transformed me into the oenophile I am today. Throughout the years, I have met winemakers and representatives from wineries all over the world, and I am grateful for the passion and knowledge that they have shared with me along the way.

Now, as I begin to share with the masses a little bit of what I know and a lot about what I am learning along the way, I feel that it is necessary to explain the distinction between someone who enjoys wine and someone who loves it.

There are many forms of art in the world, and though I have not the tiniest lick of artistic talent, I consider myself to be a foremost lover of the arts. When people think of art, however, certain things automatically spring to mind. Art museums are full of paintings, sculptures, and photographs, all considered by the masses to be “art.” But what makes a painting or a sculpture or a photograph artistic is not its mere existence as whatever it is, but instead its appeal to human beings, the way it touches the human senses. One of my favorite sculptures in the world is the Venus de Milo. I saw her in Paris at the Louvre in 2004 and fell in love with her. Why? Because she is mysterious and uncertain. Much how I see myself, I see her as incomplete, with infinite possibilities for what she could have looked like before, and how she can be completed in my imagination. She is a very basic canvas of a woman’s life, to be completed however it is her viewer desires. Moreover, as all people do, she holds secrets. There is evidence of what she was, but only she will really ever know. But mostly, she is a link. She links human creation and natural destruction, allowing for a new door to open, being perhaps in someone’s mind today even more beautiful that she once was in her youth.

What does that have to do with wine? The answer lies in the human senses. Venus de Milo has sparked my imagination and enlightened my understanding of life a bit by simply appealing to my primitive human senses. She can be seen and viewed, appealing to my eye sight. Theoretically (though not without serious consequences), she can be touched. Her texture, her aging, everything about her can appeal to my human sense of touch. She can be interpreted, opening in my mind a mental awareness. In all of these ways, she is a work of art, unique in how she affects each and every person.

Now, of all of the human senses, I believe that the most important is the sense of taste. In part this is because we need to eat in order to live. We taste every single day. Moreover the sense of taste is linked to every single other human sense. The way we taste something always accounts for what it looks like, smells like, and feels like in our mouths. Because this sense is so very important, it is only natural that there be some work of art associated with it. Admittedly, a chef can turn nearly any food or liquid into a work of art with a little bit of thought and a lot of passion. And, as with any work of art, some will love it, some will hate it, and others will be indifferent. Such is the way of the arts.

To me, however, wine is different from food. The way I see things, it is superior to other foods and beverages in many of the same ways that I feel Venus de Milo is superior to other works of art. Each wine, like each work of art, is unique. Every year winemakers harvest grapes for another round of production. Every year and every second that the grapes are on the vine, the conditions are different. Whether there is a certain amount of rain, or drought, or whether the grapes are harvested early or late, each year the wine is different. In addition to this deep connection with nature, there is a connection with the artist. Winemakers, much like Venus de Milo’s creator, begin with a blank slate, the grapes that are harvested. From there, each winemaker makes decisions along the way. Steel tanks or barrels? French or American oak? How long should it be aged? There are so many decisions to be made in the winemaking process that is is virtually impossible for one winemaker to duplicate another’s wine.

And what about the consumer? No two consumers share precisely the same taste buds. While people may have similar tastes, I’ve never known two people in my life who like exactly the same foods and drinks prepared or spiced exactly the same way. In this sense wine is open to interpretation just as much as any painting, sculpture, or photograph.What I saw in Venus de Milo is individual to me. The feelings and emotions that she evoked are entirely mine and mine alone. So, too, is wine’s effect on me. When I smell, swirl, and take a sip of 2008 Tignanello, the memories, emotions, and thoughts that it brings are mine and mine alone. Another person who tastes it will pick up different flavors from the wine, and will experience a different sensation. Indeed, from the day the grapevines are planted to the day the wine touches the tongue, each wine embodies nature, human creation, and human interpretation. Wine is, in every sense of the word, a work of art.

Finally, wine stands for so much more than just a drink. In history, in religion, in all the important aspects of the world, wine has played at least some small role. Wine brings people together. People throughout history have broken bread and drank wine together and, often times, brought about peace as a result. People like myself, who endeavor to bring peace amongst enemies, know and understand the importance of wine from a cultural perspective.

Ernest Hemingway summarized it most eloquently when he said, “Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”