Did anyone else do the focus/attention art exercise in the NY Times last weekend? I think it has some relevance to wine. The idea of “wine as art” is always a little cringe. But I do think paying close attention to good wine can be a good thing in our increasingly attention-starved world
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Appreciate your writing.
I don’t think this is true:
I think that question always begs another question - “what is art,” which is a weird combination of well-worn, yet unanswered, tired, but hyper relevant, and obvious, yet so far reaching it’s not. All of which, have the effect of making on sigh or roll their eyes and at least - move on.
In regard to the article, had not read.
Just did.
Interesting.
Reminds me of two things simultaneously.
- A Japanese tv show where they put the contestant in an empty room and watch them go insane (I believe there is a WWII staged novella of the same premise)
- How often I subconsciously reach for and check my phone.
Ay ya
I’m too sober to fully engage about this right now.
Wine or food as ‘art’ is fine by me. Even if it doesn’t rise to the level of ‘art,’ there is an art to creating it. (So, there can be an expressive or ‘artistic’ method to its creation.)
It is a created thing of beauty, there for appreciation. It’s ephemeral nature as it’s being consumed is its expression, so it seems to qualify. (Like music, or dance, or sand painting, etc.)
Paint is not art, but a painting is. Wine rises above its list of ingredients, as well. (Art is more than what it is made of, same with wine.)
We call some beers ‘craft beers,’ so maybe wine is only a craft.
See? We all need to be in a room regaling each other.
Fantastic topic, sir.
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My Cellartracker handle is “LiquidArt”. Enough said …
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Paging @Kevin_Porter
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It’s chemistry so it’s a science. Ask any winemaker.
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I think of it as magic.
At least the stuff I drink.
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I’m certainly not a chemist. Or a scientist.
I’m also not an artist.
Artisanal? I’m wiling to accept that. Artists start with nothing but materials and ideas. I start with stuff we have farmed or we have contracted other people to farm to very specific standards. It’s neither a magic trick nor a science experiment. It’s a combination of many things, the main ones being experience and patience.
I’d like to say that we get grapes and I carve away everything that doesn’t look like Pinot Noir, but as amusing as that is it’s simply not the case.
Farmer. Artisan. Librarian. Head coach. Taster. Laborer.
There’s glimmers of art but at the end of the day it’s not art. To me. It’s also not industrial bullshit of which there is more in modern winemaking than not.
Not an artist. Not a scientist. More just a fucking weirdo.
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Yeah . . . but on my end of the glass . . . it’s also magical. 
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Always appreciate kind words!
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I dont think many artists make their own paint.
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@jasonwilson , you should probably add ‘ITB’ to your handle, yeah?
These words are notoriously slippery in their definitions, but having seen many of these debates on the wine boards over the years, it usually comes down to winemaking as ‘craft’ rather than ‘art’. Although one can use the word ‘artistic’ in all sorts of fanciful ways to apply to many aspects of life.
Either way, it’s beautiful and we love it.
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My favorite quote in the “what is art”-debate is that “Art can not have any purpose but itself”.
By that, wine is not art.
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Not sure about that one. Lots of famous works that we would recognize as art were made on commission to fulfill a certain purpose, position in a church/town square/building, etc.
Ticky-tack in some ways, but still important (I think). Wine isn’t created. People can’t do it, and yeast don’t follow directions.
Part of the art of wine production is understanding that it’s a living living medium using another living creature as the brush.
There’s no shortage of wines that any opportunity for art has been removed, or perhaps it’s like topiary where the art runs from banal and un-imaginitive to the remarkable, if one has the imagination and stamina.
The concept of winemaking as art being cringe is only possible if one is completely removed from the real process or stuck in a limited range of what defines art. Just because the winemakers don’t completely control the process simply makes it more of a challenge, rather than leas artistic.
No…it’s not. Unless you want to say that because there are chemical processes in mixing paint and adhering it to a surface painting is chemistry.
I spend nearly zero hours with chemistry in the cellar. Mostly because chemical equations mostly do what you expect them to. So watching them is recordkeeping, and interns can do that. In 2009 my harvest help(not Megan) was annoying the crap out of me because we hadn’t done numbers yet at the beginning of fermentation (because we were picking a stupid amount of fruit for two people in about 3 days). I flipped out a bit and we did the entire harvest organoleptically, just to prove we could. It worked quite well, and his focus on the actual ferment instead of a notebook improved significantly.
Physics is way more important to me. Thermal dynamics and turbulence have much more of my attention.
And after 20+ years, I can walk up to a fermenter and know when it’s right, and hear what it tells me it wants. I know the smells, the heat it produces, the way the sheen of the fruit changes to matte as the ferment gets close to being dry. It’s there for you, if you’re actually present in the process-which I would call natural. A lot of the work is more like taking care of cows or goats, your caring/farming watching and seeing correct patterns working are the vital aspects of good winemaking.
I’m sure there are plenty of winemakers who feel differently but to each their own.
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One of my favorites as well…though at some point most artists have the purpose of getting paid come into play in some way.
And while we may think wine is for us, I definitely think that wine production fits that quote to a tee. Fermentation draws similar feelings out with beer as well, with Ben Franklin saying, “beer is how we know God wants men to be happy”. It leans into beer being for the purpose of God, rather than man. And therefore a higher purpose if not just for itself.
100% on that last one 
!