From the Desk of Randall Grahm
Jan. 17th, 2008 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustRandall Grahm, the mad genius behind Bonny Doon wines, has resumed writing his newsletter, full of good wine and bad puns - and footnotes, the man gives good footnote. I wish his wines were more easily available in the UK, and I wished it all the more after I'd read his current missive (PDF file), in which he discourses about Bonny Doon's shift to biodynamic production.
Resergence or Poly-Sci.
I very recently spent a day in New York14 with my friend, Serge Hochar, the proprietor of Chateau Musar in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, discussing these things. I had last seen Serge a few years back in Spain and at that time we had a very long, speculative discussion about whether the geometric configuration of the vineyard itself might have an effect on grape quality, possibly from the standpoint of optimal solar reception or from considerations of a more subtle, energetic level. Serge had read an article claiming that vineyards planted on a heptagonal15 scheme would be particularly well-favored. After I returned to the States, the image of heptagons began to burn in my brain. My desk was littered with heptagons and other shapes that I had cut out of paper16, in an effort to find an elegant way to array them. I searched the internet to try to find the article that Serge had mentioned but to no avail. (I did find interesting articles on crop circles – maybe not a bad place to start – and on various obscure heptagonal molecules.) I attempted several times to reach Serge to follow up on our discussion but this coincided with a time of great emergency in his country and I was just not able to make the connection. I was very pleased to now see Serge well and in good spirits. After we had talked a while, I dumped out my bag of paper heptagons on the table. We spent a couple of hours moving the strange shapes around until a rather elegant, indeed compellingly beautiful pattern began to emerge. I know from this point forward, that it will effectively be impossible for me to plant a vineyard in straight lines. I am keen on the notion of a real polyculture (the better to complement polygons), a proper ecosystem. I don't know yet how I can defend the staggering inefficiency of what it is that I am envisioning, but this dream-vineyard will be rather like a labyrinth and its core will be penetrated – in much the way that I am essaying to locate the site itself – by a rather non-linear path.
14 Serge was there for The New York Wine Experience, an event sponsored by the Wine Spectator, to which I had been disinvited a few years back. We sat in one of the restaurants of the Marriot Marquis Hotel, drinking endless cups of tea and moving the heptagons around, with illustrious viterati flitting around us. Of course some part of me was unhappy not to have been included in the event as a pourer or speaker, but being there, as invisible as a ghost, trying to at least conceive of a higher plane – the paper pieces arraying themselves as if by magic – felt exactly right.
15 The most mysterious of all polygons and perhaps the deepest of all numbers as far as spiritual resonance – it generally does not play well with others, that is to say, array well with other polygons, at least in two dimensions.
16 My daughter, Melie also caught the bug and she has been drawing and cutting out polygons like there is no tomorrow. She recently mentioned the word "polygon" in conversation to a woman who was sitting across from us at a Winemaker Dinner and the woman was mightily impressed.
Resergence or Poly-Sci.
I very recently spent a day in New York14 with my friend, Serge Hochar, the proprietor of Chateau Musar in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, discussing these things. I had last seen Serge a few years back in Spain and at that time we had a very long, speculative discussion about whether the geometric configuration of the vineyard itself might have an effect on grape quality, possibly from the standpoint of optimal solar reception or from considerations of a more subtle, energetic level. Serge had read an article claiming that vineyards planted on a heptagonal15 scheme would be particularly well-favored. After I returned to the States, the image of heptagons began to burn in my brain. My desk was littered with heptagons and other shapes that I had cut out of paper16, in an effort to find an elegant way to array them. I searched the internet to try to find the article that Serge had mentioned but to no avail. (I did find interesting articles on crop circles – maybe not a bad place to start – and on various obscure heptagonal molecules.) I attempted several times to reach Serge to follow up on our discussion but this coincided with a time of great emergency in his country and I was just not able to make the connection. I was very pleased to now see Serge well and in good spirits. After we had talked a while, I dumped out my bag of paper heptagons on the table. We spent a couple of hours moving the strange shapes around until a rather elegant, indeed compellingly beautiful pattern began to emerge. I know from this point forward, that it will effectively be impossible for me to plant a vineyard in straight lines. I am keen on the notion of a real polyculture (the better to complement polygons), a proper ecosystem. I don't know yet how I can defend the staggering inefficiency of what it is that I am envisioning, but this dream-vineyard will be rather like a labyrinth and its core will be penetrated – in much the way that I am essaying to locate the site itself – by a rather non-linear path.
14 Serge was there for The New York Wine Experience, an event sponsored by the Wine Spectator, to which I had been disinvited a few years back. We sat in one of the restaurants of the Marriot Marquis Hotel, drinking endless cups of tea and moving the heptagons around, with illustrious viterati flitting around us. Of course some part of me was unhappy not to have been included in the event as a pourer or speaker, but being there, as invisible as a ghost, trying to at least conceive of a higher plane – the paper pieces arraying themselves as if by magic – felt exactly right.
15 The most mysterious of all polygons and perhaps the deepest of all numbers as far as spiritual resonance – it generally does not play well with others, that is to say, array well with other polygons, at least in two dimensions.
16 My daughter, Melie also caught the bug and she has been drawing and cutting out polygons like there is no tomorrow. She recently mentioned the word "polygon" in conversation to a woman who was sitting across from us at a Winemaker Dinner and the woman was mightily impressed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 05:03 pm (UTC)As desperate wine-addicts (I greatly enjoyed your posts on your France travels, we must have been nearby, almost smiultaneously) that´s our man. Must be planted in polygones or even heptagonals, yip.
Have you heard of the italian (could it be otherwise?) who claims his grapes make better wine than anyone else´s, at least in the Chianti area, ever since he has a live string quartet or just boxes playing classic music to them? They especially approve of Mozart, just like everyone, it seems. Easy listening grapes but with refined taste: they do definitely prefer the live versions. I guess they dance secretly, nights, in the full moon, too!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 05:38 pm (UTC)