After an absolutely stunning morning out in Pommard picking, well me manning the van & ensuring no one walked away with bins while the men folk picked, we head back to the cuverie to process the grapes.  This meant lots of sorting.  Hours & hours of sorting in fact.

Sorting is pretty mindless work, which is precisely why I love it & exactly why Craig could not stand it.  Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.  I learned through this experience, and I guess have always known but chose not to verbalize or admit, that I really enjoy thoughtless tasks.   If you ever need someone to stuff 400 envelopes, I’m your man.  Staring at a stack of robust envelops fills this soul, and I don’t care who knows it.

The point of this being that through delving into these inane tasks one has the time to soul search & ponder the status of self.  At approximately hour 3 of flip, flip, pull out grey rot (which was actually totally rare as the fruit is looking strikingly clean this year!), I sorted out life.  Or began to at least.

I loved being in France.  I loved being in the the winery.  I loved getting up at dawn.  I loved getting dirty.  I loved the unanimous enthusiasm, the tough & purposeful work, the connection to nature and the outdoors, the connection to those around you that comes from a shared love- a drink!- and I loved being a part of it.  And through these loves I came to realize that this whole wine making thing is something I need to spend some more time getting to know.

Life plan 31.0: spend this year in Hong Kong tasting as many wines as possible.  Taste, read, pick the brains of all of the winos who surround me, and sort out money.  So far I’m doing pretty well on the taste front (Richebourg, Mature Barolo, Quintarelli, & Frederic Cossard to name a few).  Spring will find me doing harvest down under to see what that’s all about & summer begins my journey into Master of Wine. My ideal autumn situation would be to get a week or so in at a winery in Italy (Piedmont?) and then head back to Burgundy to see through an entire harvest from picking to winter/spring bottling while being able to study & participate in MW activities through the EU.

So that’s the plan.  Hong Kong you’ve been great…