The Wines of Distomo--Part 4...

The Distomites (the people of Distomo) are an interesting lot. Equipped with sharp intellect and wit, they are passionate about politics, sports, food and, yes, wine. Also, they are fiercely independent, opinionated and often rigid and stubborn. They work hard and their family and friends are highly valued and strongly supported. And, yes, they are very competitive. These group traits are well-suited for wine making, with one exception: the stubbornness part. While the folks in Distomo are very good in choosing good grape varieties and taking care of their vineyards, they somehow fall short in their wine making and wine preservation practices. It is not difficult to understand why my parents' and grandparents' generations drew wine directly from the barrel for their daily consumption. Glass bottles, corks and wine bottling equipment were most likely unheard of and most definitely unavailable and unaffordable. Also, storage space was scarce and not very suitable for bottle storing. The absence of proper storage and ageing of wine resulted into a couple more bad practices. The supply of wine was limited to the first six or seven months of the year, mainly because it would turn into vinegar by fall. My village, by the way, was never short of vinegar! So the opening of the barrel and tasting of the new vintage was a highly anticipated event and occurred usually around the Christmas holidays. The problem with this was that by then the wine was barely three months old. Hardly sufficient time for the wine to be ready for drinking. Moreover, since the village folks had determined that their wine did not last very long, they fortified it with all kinds of preservatives which in addition to the health risks, they completely ruined the taste and smell of wine.

Unfortunately, this practice, although significantly curtailed today, continues to plague wine making in Distomo and it has become one of my personal causes for change. And the best way I know how to affect change is to lead by example. But before I unveil my strategy of "change", let's be clear about something. I don't own a vineyard, never worked on one, and my knowledge of viticulture is, at best, slightly above average. I know a little more about wines, and how to preserve them and age them. The village folks, however, are very good in growing grapes, harvesting them and basically placing the must into the barrels. In fact, up to that point they can go up against the best. It is downhill from there. This incomplete cycle had me preoccupied for quite some time. Until I realized that their skills and knowledge were complementary with my own. The path to "wholeness" was suddenly clear. I would learn from them and would share my knowledge and expertise with them. But this could not be done in a mass scale. I wasn't planning to give seminars and conduct workshops on bottling and ageing wine and building wine cellars. Neither I could go out to the vineyards and ask the town's people to teach me grape growing. It had to be done on a very small scale and a carefully selected target from the new generation of winegrowers and winemakers.