Wine as a topic can intimidate and make even sophisticated people feel like novices. I, for one, fully admit that I more frequently make jokes involving wine than actually imbibe a glass. Nonetheless, I appreciate the significance of the ancient drink. Mirassou, whose family helped bring European wine to California six generations ago, writes about his experiences making wine in the state’s Livermore Valley. This place is more famous for its tech industry (Sandia and Lawrence Livermore Labs) and is notably, not the more celebrated Napa Valley to the north. His experiences bring along sensitivity, warmth, elocution, and authenticity in celebrating this region’s beauty.
For him, wine and life are intertwined, and as having studied literature in college, he sees profoundly metaphoric parallels between the two. The winemaking business was handed to him by his father, and he hopes to hand it off to his children and grandchildren. He has experienced professional life outside of wine, but wine resembles a final calling for him as he approaches the end of his professional life.
While writing this book, Mirassou’s wife June was diagnosed with cancer. She spent her last days with him walking the property with their dog. I get the sense that these essays were a sort of personal support while encountering this loss and other losses. Fortunately, that crutch ended up becoming a springboard to a deeper embrace of life, better days, and other loves.
While examining his life, Mirassou also explains the technical aspects of winemaking. While fascinated by geekiness, I did not follow all of the details. I remain more familiar with the science of fermentation in bread than in a wine barrel. Fortunately, one needn’t follow all of the details to observe that Mirassou’s love of wine is more spiritual than technical. He loves the aesthetics of it all, including the ritual tastings and the seemingly random forecasting required to pick great wine. Again, all of this speaks for him as a metaphor for living the good life – the only life he was given.
While still a relative novice when it comes to wine, I appreciate this book’s spiritual depth. Work and wine, life and love are all connected in Mirassou’s experience. Those who appreciate Mirassou’s signature wine Lineage should certainly delight in this book alongside a bottle. Like the rich wine, this book is well-produced out of fine materials. The black-and-white photographs mirror the poignant beauty of the text. It evokes a sensory thrill to the simple parts of life – eating, drinking, tasting, and loving – that should extend to those outside of the community of wine, too. Ultimately, this book is about becoming involved in the stuff of life, and those who want to appreciate the food-and-drink industries more deeply would benefit from Mirassou’s experiences. Like wine, life is sometimes bitter and sometimes sweet. Mirassou’s memoir is no different. But also like good, aged wine, his words are lasting and noteworthy.
Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine
By Steven Kent Mirassou
Copyright (c) 2021
Val de Grȃce Books
ISBN13 9780984884957
Page Count: 184
Genre: Memoir/Autobiography
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