Creations grace birthed the perfect spot near the California coast to receive a cooling sea fog. That fog rolls up and down a 30 x 5 mile valley filled with varietal grapevines throughout the growing season. Labor and Grace kiss in that valley, blessing man with the with the fruit of their union.
Konstantin Dmitrich Levin is a character from a Tolstoy novel and Robert Mondavi is a world renowned vintner. Imagine my surprise when I encountered the footsteps of both of these men last Wednesday while touring a Napa vineyard.
Levin theorizes that agriculture is more than soil and vegetation. It must include the hands of the laborer. Agriculture becomes art when the soil, plant and laborers love for his work come together to form a crop.
Mondavi is a winemaker who envisions wines of balance. He wants no single characteristic to stand out; instead he aims for a balanced, gracious wine. To do this his winery still harvests 500 acres of grapes by hand. The idea being that hand labor is a more gracious way to treat the fruit, resulting in a finer nectar in the bottle.
Proof is in the pudding as they say so after a recent vineyard tour I was treated to three of the Mondavi wines. Balanced and gracious one and all. Levin and Mondavi were on my mind as I pondered the gifts of labor and grace and what they brought forth in the beautiful valley of Napa.
Cheers!
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