A Toast to Me!

Wine:

Fermented grape juice + Romance

My Abuelo (grandfather) was an avid wine drinker… so much so that my Abuela (grandmother) would fill the carafe with 1/2 water, 1/2 wine. I don’t know if my Abuelo knew that my Abuela did this. But if he did, he’d probably appreciate the fact that she had learned how to turn water into wine, just for him.

I was introduced to the beauty of wine when I found myself surrounded by thousands of bottles at work. The shape of the bottles differed, their weight differed, their colors, their aroma, their taste, their little nuisances, their history – once I thought about it all, I was hooked. Here I was presented with something that I grew up with, and yet I realized that it was so much more. Each wine has a process and a purpose. A life story. It has the ability to set the tone for an evening, or to take on the characteristics of it. All this power from a tiny little grape and a person with the passion to create magic with it — to turn it into this elixir that has the ability to create memories, or evoke them.

For me, a bottle of wine presents an opportunity of discovery, of self-evaluation. A moment to stop and smell the “roses” – or in my case, the “fruit”. A moment of silence. A moment to live in the present and savor it.

I don’t know why exactly my Abuelo drank wine — whether it was to experience or to escape; But I do know that my Abuelo expressed an appreciation for that tiny little fruit that provided him the serenity to sit at the dinner table for hours with a smile on his face as he watched his grandchildren grow up.

Tags: family, Wine

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