Age of Wine

           

When I think about the first year of my life when wine took off, when I decided to learn all about it and capture it's depth was on our first big family vacation. Mom and Roy had discovered wine tasting and the wine country in California to be a wondrous place!
So in the summer of 2004 we all traveled together, Mom and her 2 young adult boys. Being apart of the other 3 "significant others" I delighted in watching the brothers joke around and their Mother shine from such a fun friendship among them! Now I look back in awe of how we were all so young and didn't actually realize it yet....
It was also my first time in a professional wine tasting, touring the vineyards and cellars. Getting to even taste right out of a barrel directly, truly ALL was so fascinating!

Mom was so proud of her clever charming husband as Roy was the kind of guy who could talk to anyone, make friends so easily and had all of us grouped together for the V.I.P. treatment in going behind the scenes from the usual public in to seeing inside oak barrels and fermentation systems. I can see remember his big grin as Roy burst out saying to the group of us standing by the grape vines outside "Okay! It's all set! In an hour my friend will takes us to watch them bottle the wine up!" I was so truly excited from all I had learned on this trip that seeing all  these steps for the very first time was quite magical if not a bit sad that my own family farm hadn't gotten into the wine making buzz back in the day, Ooooooh what a different childhood I would of had for sure if wine had been served so easily, just as Jesus had made readily available in the bible stories this very same kind of wine. It would of saved souls much faster I think! So on that summer afternoon I sat happily imagining how all my family relationships could of been a bit more delightful by just adding a glass of wine...maybe?

All those vineyards had such history and rich stories that I loved every single moment of this family vacation. Even when my husband Tony got into those heated arguments with his brother's girlfriend Taryn. Or when Mom would say we had to be up in the morning and out the door by 8am. The over all ways I liked learning how to travel with someone else, delighting in the high energy activities and many many stories we all shared!

As I entered the clothing shop with my freshly bought mocha in hand I over heard Roy telling a crazy story to his new step-sons, Tony and Dusty. "SO, there I was, my beer in one hand and my dick in another." I choked on my coffee drink not sure where this story had gone but my laughter caught me off guard and tears filled my eyes from laughing so hard! 
While Dusty exclaimed "You know it's going to be a GREAT story when it starts off like THAT!" and we all laughed together in that beautiful state of California on the refreshing summer's morning air!