Wine is a travel experience
The concept of wine as a travel experience is a central tenet of Vininspo! But what do we mean by it? The simplest interpretation is that by tasting wine we’re travelling through time, across cultures to a specific place.
But there’s another important angle. As when we embark on any hopeful adventure, we should be free to experience wine wide-eyed and whole-heartedly, without the slightest sense we don’t belong.
Adieu, Bonnezeaux Gonzo!
This book and an epiphany in a Paris bistro inspired a journey in storytelling. It started in freelancing, progressed to newsrooms and eventually to led to Vininspo! Please join me as I look back on that joyride and sentimentally close a chapter whose protagonist was Bonnezeaux Gonzo.
Viva AWIWA!
The inaugural Australian Women in Wine Awards (AWIWA) are with us. And don’t waste time wondering whether these awards are “necessary”. Instead think of women who make wine, tend vineyards, write restaurant lists, run businesses, put on events, welcome you at the cellar door and in any way make your wine experience better. As it stands female participation in the wine industry is estimated to be around 10%. That's both a huge imbalance and drastic waste of potential. These awards ultimately aim to redress the balance and chase that potential.
Imagination and wine
In Imagination & Time, British philosopher Mary Warnock says imagination’s the key if we’re to go beyond witnessing beauty to actually feel it. “The difference is this: in feeling the beauty of objects, we enjoy not only the common, shared pleasures of the senses, but also the private pleasures of the imagination, peculiar to ourselves, and such that we have to struggle to articulate them.” Vininspo! ponders what this means for wine.