Have you ever thought about how wine is made, & how it’s a metaphor for life?

It’s really interesting, here is the short version of how wine is made if everything goes perfect:

1. Start with fresh mashed fruit
2. Add water, sugar and yeast
3. Fermentation – the yeast turns the sugar to alcohol
4. After  5 to 7 days remove the pulp & siphon into a carboy (a big jug)
5. Ferment again for 4-6 weeks (test gravity with a hydrometer – a float that indicates your wine is ready to be bottled. It floats higher in liquid with sugar and it sinks in liquid with alcohol (reading should be between 0.990-0.998)
6. Be sure your wine is clear, then bottle your wine. Make sure you don’t bottle the sediment on the bottom

Sounds easy but there are so many factors that affect this process. Was the fruit picked at the correct time, was it fresh, did it have enough sunlight, rain, was there a warm spring or an early frost, was the terrain good where the grapes were grown? The grapes may have been ripe but were the tannins ripe? These and so many other variables affect the outcome of good wine.

With 2015 here I started noticing how life is a lot like wine, it’s unique, complex, has variety of character, expressiveness, complexity, and connectedness. It’s a series of events and choices that create us. Stress is also needed in making fine wine. The best vineyards have climates that put some stress on the vines, a little lack of water or some nutrients, but not so severe that it kills the vine. The adversity forces the vines to struggle and adapt. The vines are forced to concentrate on a limited amount of grape clusters, thus putting out the best fruit. This reminds me of the old saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger“.

There are times in our life when we are stressed in order to grow, and times we need to be siphoned and leave pulp behind in order to mature and evolve to our fullest. When yeast is added to wine it changes, turns to alcohol, and purifies. I associate spirituality with yeast, when it’s added to our lives it changes us. I don’t think Jesus’s first miracle of turning water into wine was a coincidence; John 2:1-11. We all have the opportunity to evolve like a fine wine and get better with love, care and time.

My toast to you:

Here is to water that was turned into wine
Let the stress in our life diminish with time

Let our lives be full, complex and smooth
With the ability to siphon our hindrances in forward moves

So raise your glass and sip this fine wine
It’s a metaphor of life and your opportunity to shine

Cheers – Carrie