This week, we are treated with a visit from Wes Hagen to the Grape Encounters Studio and Emporium Wine Bar & Shop in the Central Coast. Wes has just experienced the Vinthesis™ blending experience, and gives his stamp of approval to David’s methods and madness. And then lets loose with what we consider to be brilliant observations about the meaning and value of wine in our lives…
Wes is a highly-regarded winemaker, wine historian and lecturer, former winemaker of Clos Pepé Wines, and is now the Brand Ambassador of J. Wilkes Wines out of Santa Maria, CA. And his wine edutainment videos on YouTube are AMAZING and we encourage all listeners to check them out. And so…
What is the WHY of wine? Wes explains, “We use wine to engage in the last meaningful analog ritual that’s left in this country, and that is, to open a bottle of wine at the table, to spend a little time away from our stupid phones and our iPads and our computers, to make eye contact, to drink a glass of wine, drink a bottle of wine, and spend an extra hour discussing everything except that bottle of wine. Great wine should lead to a conversation about everything except itself. Wine is an investment in spending time with people we love.”
And why are we so determined to try to identify flavors in wine? Wes discusses how Robert Parker established a lexicon of identifying aromas and flavors in wine, and why it’s basically irrelevant. The more profound questions are “What are you passionate about? What do you love in life?”
Next, David talks with Joel Paglione, Owner of Oak Bottle LLC, which is revolutionizing the beverage and bar industry by allowing consumers to take their cheap/average tasting wine, whiskey or any other desired spirit and transform it into an expensive, vintage tasting beverage within hours. Interested in learning how it works? Listen on…
[haiku url=”https://grapeencounters.com/media/ep321.mp3″ player=1761]
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