I gave the following as a speech for a local community group. I was in awe at the passion it stirred and I am inspired to share it with you.

I recently read a book that has changed the entire way I think about wine. Passion on the Vine author, Sergio Esposito, grew up in Naples and immigrated to America with his family when he was ten. They were welcomed to upstate New York by his relatives with a bland, uninspired meal – far from the feasts and watered down Sangiovese he was used to in Italy. Despite the Americanized ways of his uncle, he was one of Sergio’s only continued connections to wine, starting with the jug or two of country wine he always kept beneath the sink. As Sergio grew older, he refused to succumb to the boring fare slapped down on a plate and the lackluster wines that everyone loved… because some high and mighty critic told them to.

He dug down to his roots and began intimately studying Italian wines, working at restaurants, serving as a personal sommelier, and visiting the vineyards of his homeland, ultimately becoming America’s foremost authority on the subject.

Armed with extensive wine knowledge and with America’s palate in need of a makeover, Sergio was inspired to open Italian Wine Merchants, a shop dedicated to bringing the most authentic Italian wines to the United States. His memoir includes one of his frequent trips back to his Italy where he introduces the characters behind those passionate bottles of wine. From a farmer who uses the rhythm of the moon to guide his crops to a prince who destroys his vineyards prior to his death so that his grapes will never be used incorrectly, Passion on the Vine allows us to discover the intense emotional connection that comes from pouring your heart and soul into every cluster of grapes.

Sergio brings to light that the first quality winemakers were priests and alchemists, men who believed that nature was central to all understanding. Their simplistic belief was that best wine came from the best raw natural material. From the ground to the barrel and into the bottle, the winemaker is a trusting parent letting nature take 90% of the course and nurturing only 10%.

In Washington State’s newest American Viticulture Area (or AVA), Benson Family Vineyards takes a similar approach. Eleven, possibly twelve years ago, Paul and Kathy Benson, along with their two sons, Jeff and Scott, purchased 30 acres of orchards in the hills of Manson, high above Lake Chelan. They dug up the orchards, posted weather stations, and for the first year and a half, they monitored every slope, every patch of dirt to determine which vines to grow where and which direction to plant them. Only when the vines began to produce fruit (3 years later) did they even think about entering the winemaking business. The Benson family touches every cluster of grapes from the vine to the holding tanks, to the barrel, the bottle, and even in the tasting room.

On a recent trip to Chelan, Charlie and I found ourselves returning to Benson in search of more Curious, one of their most popular white blends. After we tasted a selection of wines and the crowd began to thin, Charlie and I struck up conversation with one of the Benson sons, Jeff. The more we spoke, the more exciting the conversation became and eventually we were running outside for a better view of the crops.

From atop the hill, he pointed out every row of grapes and why they chose to plant them where they did. Cabernet Sauvignon, east to west to get the most heat, and Reisling north to south to catch the breeze to cool them down. He shared stories about him and his dad thinning the vines and testing the Brix in preparation for harvest. He pointed out the clearing in the vineyards where he and his wife were married two years earlier, and revealed his frustration with the Riesling vines, telling us of his plans to tear them out and create a fishing pond for his kids. He caught himself showing a bit of his emotional side and puffed out his chest for a moment – “…and then we’re going to turn the room downstairs into Jeff’s Bar.” In retrospect it was a short conversation, but it was just long enough for him to openly share his family’s passion on the vine.

Oddly enough, but perhaps not so, I am beginning to think this way about everything I consume. Where and how was it grown? Was it truly cared for? Was it loved? I get a passionate spark just from the simple act of cooking, but if I grow some of the ingredients, hand-pick any of the components, it turns that spark into a fire.

Unfortunately, I have long been distanced from family farm and I am currently without a full garden, so I have developed a habit of visiting my local farmers market. I seek out fresh in-season produce, free range chickens, Washington honey, and apple-fed chicken eggs. I enjoy striking up conversations with the vendors, feeling passion emanate from their chests. It makes me feel good about what I eat and drink, gives me an emotional connection to my food, invigorates my local economy, and saves my palate from bland, mass-produced ingredients.

It saddens me to hear of massive food companies plumping their chickens with salt water, chiseling down carrots in factories, and slapping “organic” “natural” labels on processed food… all to make a few extra bucks. The thought, the care, the love, has seeped out of our meals. The only way to bring it back is to start creating a demand for it. If you choose to buy farm-fresh chicken eggs, you are one less person mindlessly picking up a carton of perfectly white, flavorless eggs. If you buy a whole chicken from the farmers market, perhaps your neighbor will too. Get to know the vintners that produced the fruit or your wine and they will continue to nurture their grapes.

I won’t twist your arm to jump on my bandwagon, but I encourage you to open your eyes and open your heart, create an emotional connection, and feel your own version of “passion on the vine.”