I don’t remember ordering it, but every month a copy of “Food & Wine” shows up in our mailbox. Did I purchase a lifelong subscription through a school fundraiser so many years ago I’ve forgotten? Maybe in a weak moment the extremely low subscription price spoke to me. Or I thought I’d actually read it, knowing I could use more knowledge about wine.
Opening the newly arrived publication, I took a whiff of its freshly printed pages and began to glance at a few recipes and articles. An interview entitled “The Vines of Israel” caught my eye. Roni Saslove, an Israeli winemaker, practices “mindful wine tasting ” in which she “tries to get people to experience the stories behind the grapes and to discover their own personal connections to a particular taste.” Roni explains that “behind every glass of wine, there’s the story of the grape, the story of the winemaker, and your own story – all three” (Sylvie Bihar, interviewer). I didn’t realize how, besides the music and paired food, details such as the color and temperature of a room can influence the taste of wine. I wonder why this is. Wine, characterized by a combination of regional soil and climate, is much more complex than I can comprehend. So for now I won’t try to understand its mystery but will explore and practice mindful tasting.
Bread for the Journey 