Cultivating a Habit for Natural & Natural Wine
When I was in massage school (a 2 year break during my wine career), a teacher guided us through an exercise I remember vividly to this day. If you’re already asking what this has to do with natural wine, just wait.
The instructor told us to make a fist, and squeeze it tightly. As tightly as we could stand, and hold it for 5 full minutes. 20 seconds into the squeeze, it had gotten painful and the desire was getting stronger to let go. The teacher firmly stated, “Keep squeezing.” 2 minutes in paralleled an eternity, and a room full of 30 massage therapist newbies were wondering what was happening to their hands. The instructor said, “Squeeze tighter and include everything you’ve got.” Somewhere between numbness and pain the group held true and made it through the full 5 minutes.
Approaching the finish line, we were advised to stop squeezing, and not to force our hand open. I noticed the position of where my hand was and watched how it naturally unfolded moment by moment. Everyone’s released hand looked like a fist. A full minute after the release, everyone’s hand still looked like a fist. As the time passed, hands started to uncurl, slowly getting back to one’s natural hand position. Forcing it at all was ridiculously painful. 5 minutes of squeezing led to 10 minutes of uncurling.
Whether squeezing hands, jaws or whatever, it made me think about what our habits create, and that unnatural ones could lead to natural things appearing unnatural. What does 10, 20 or 30 years of squeezing create? No wonder natural things can seem uncomfortable or funny tasting. It seems that the habits we choose determine a lot of what’s comfortable or not, and don’t necessarily have a lot to do what’s healthy and vital for both us, and the planet.
I was brought up on sugar, and I crave it to this day. For the longest time I liked big, textured mouth-filling wines (often with enough sugar not to make them taste sweet, but to give the illusion of texture that comes from a touch of sugar). I was taught sweet is good, bitter is bad, and didn’t like foods that made me salivate and had that bitter thing.
Until one day, I was getting an acupuncture treatment and the acupuncturist asked me how much sugar I ate. The treatment went well, but I was encouraged to eat dark, leafy, bitter greens. I was told they are the most abundant food source on this part of the planet, and I’d feel more ”connected” if I ate more of them. I was suspicious, but have to say this natural act and my ensuing consumption of natural food led to something that my taste buds and all of me today really appreciate (after the initial shock of course).
I like to think of tasting “natural wine” as getting the opportunity to taste a specific place and time in nature. This includes how the wine is made. Parallel wine making to eating a whole fruit versus going to grab a supplement in the fruit, and missing the fruit itself. How did nature intend it? What if our bodies understand natural wine, even if at first our taste buds do not? Many people worry about sulfites, but what we’re talking about here is a bigger picture.
Once we return to being open to what natural is, some doors seem to open. Naturally vital products have a way about them, and once we get through the habits of our taste buds to do a little rediscovery something magical happens.
How wine changes when paired with food, shows off a cool example of how things are meant to be connected. Consider wine as an ingredient that is meant to be part of a dish. Imagine your entire meal, including your glass of wine, as just one dish. The flavors should combine and complement each other, creating both variety and harmony. Then try this: when you find a wine you hate, celebrate! Go to the frig, find the nearest food with no refined sugar in it whatsoever and taste that food. Get the flavor in your mouth, then try the wine again. See what happens. Expect to be surprised! Try it with a totally different food, and expect to be surprised again!!
Our habits have gotten us to here. A good question for palate and planet, is what is natural, and good for the whole? The whole of each of us, and the whole planet!
