This week, things are light here on 1WD, because when you’re reading this post, I’ll be doing something that I haven’t really done in almost the entire multi-year lifespan of this little corner of The Global Interwebs; take a vacation.
As in, a real vacation. As in, time off from everything-not-vacation-related, the kind of stuff that Europeans do and we Americans say we do but only really talk about doing.
And so in the spirit of life enrichment, today I point you to a (rather loooong – seriously, actino films aren’t this long) video interview I recently did with the boys behind the life-actualization site Brent Smith Lifestyle (embed action after the jump below).
BSL’s tagline is “We Will Give It To You Straight & Take Your Life To The Next Level” – they purport to offer the kind of no-nonsense, BS-free advice about taking responsibility for your own purpose and happiness in life with which I personally happen to identify strongly, and to which I can now attest as being genuine (after having chatted it up with the BSL staff for something like two hours).
They grilled me on just about every aspect of wine that you can imagine, but the thing that stuck with me the most after that interview is how obvious it is that wine appreciation can help to enrich your life. I don’t mean, get-your-buzz-on-and-get-laid enrichment (though that’s certainly one aspect of it), I mean actualize-your-life-Tony-Robbins-style enrichment .
Don’t believe me? Consider these tidbits…
[ Editor’s note: it’s implied that I consider the subtopics below to be life-enhancing; your mileage may vary depending on your personal jadedness. ]
1) You can’t help but get smarter if you learn about wine.
Wine encompasses nearly all of the broader categories of the sciences (one could make an argument that physics isn’t a major player). You’ve got chemistry, history, geography, and meteorology, just to name a handful – if you’re not learning something new every day in the pursuit of wine knowledge then you quite literally aren’t paying enough attention.
2) Wine is a gateway pleasure.
It frequently amazes me how often we in the States (myself included) deny ourselves real pleasure, the kind of pleasures we will wish we engaged in more when we’re looking back upon our lives on our deathbeds. Sounds heavy, but search your feelings, Luke – you know it to be true. Let yourself in on a simple pleasure like wine, and you insert your big toe into the crack left open in the door to pleasure that the rest of the world is constantly trying to shut on you.
3) Wine is deep enough and wide enough that it might as well be infinite.
Combine all of the wines, wine styles, wine growing locales, stories/history, winemaking chemistry, and all other aspects of wine appreciation into one bucket, and you get a very, very big bucket, my friend. Finite, yes, but large enough that no one – not one Master Sommelier, not one Master of Wine, not one winemaker – can ever encompass totally. Therefore, like a flat Universe that is incredibly large and expands beyond what we can ever perceive or measure scientifically, the topic of wine might as well be infinite to you and me. Which means we will never, ever be truly “bored” with wine if we’re approaching it correctly. Which means a lifetime of enjoyment.
4) Wine is meant to be shared (and sharing is good for you).
Well… life is better when others are involved (you don’t need me to quote the myriad of happiness studies that confirm this). Wine normally comes in a size (750 ml) that’s too big to finish on your own. You can draw your own connections from there.
For more of this kind of potentially life-enhancing craziness, watch the vid already!
Learn Wine Secrets From the Top Wine Blogger – BSL LIVE
Cheers!
This is a great discussion. I'm at the point when you're talking about "weirder" grape varieties and regions and I'm getting excited about trying to find some of these. Before watching the video, #1 really hit me just because even after 3 years of college, I have never found a subject that I'm constantly wanting to read about and learn about just for the sake of learning it until I discovered I was passionate about wine. There's just so much that goes into it and once you learn one thing, you have to go learn something else. It's spectacular! Thanks for the post! This is why I drink wine :)
Thanks, Sarah! It’s often said that we should live as if we’d be dead tomorrow and learn as if we’d live forever. Fortunately for us, wine can help us do both of those things reasonably well. :-) Cheers!
Good post Joe. And as a corollary to your point 3, wine is such an immense topic that it should keep every fan humble. Although I know there are some that aren't.
Thanks, Chris. I’d say it’s alarming how little humility there can be inn the wine world, particularly in wine media, and incredibly when you take into account they point upon which you commented. I’ve got another piece coming up soon on the topic of expert opinion that should douse some of the wine world’s egomania with cold hard scientific facts… though we both know that the ones who need it they just probably won’t heed it :-) Cheers!