Time is a strange thing. The farther in distance we look into the night sky, the father back in time we are seeing. If we look far enough, we see the beginning […]
Respect
Being the Mountain
There’s a thing that happens with sheep in the mountains of Wales and Iceland: they become acclimatized to the mountain, and pass that acclimatization on to following generations. Once they have been […]
Life Raft for the Grasslands
Can you imagine drowning on dry land? It happens. On the grasslands, the difference between breathing and drowning is so slight. For instance, at a height of 860 metres, after a day […]
Black Pine
We’re talking about Pinot Noir. Don’t google it. You’ll get thousands of variations on the title of one book, rather sloppily quoted and never questioned, so let’s just go to the source. […]
Art & Urban Renewal
Today, an idea that I’ve brought back to the valley from my years in Campbell River, on Vancouver Island, where the sculptor and painter Ken Blackburn has worked for years to free […]
Grapes at Work
Our grapes are up to something we never suspected. You know those leaves on grape plants? Grape Leaves Waiting for the Light Assmannshausen am Rhein, late June, 6 a.m. Photosynthesis is the […]
Getting Out of Town
History eventually becomes the present. For instance, to look back to the day when the entire Okanagan was a part of Oregon and the only business going was the raising of cattle […]
The Grace of Wine
Technical wine-making is a new invention. Before that, wine-making was an art. It still is. That’s what I’d like to talk about today, because discussions of winemaking usually give short shrift to […]
Marc, yeast, and terroir
Today, the first of a two-part series on the spiritual and environmental nature of wine, and what it can teach us about productive paths for our society as it works to reintegrate […]
The Art of Wine
The art of wine is a way of working with life. It is the art of life. You could say, it is the art of living, but then all art is that. […]
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