Two Divergent Paths

A number of years ago I watched a fascinating movie titled "Blood Into Wine".  The central charismatic character of the documentary is Maynard James Keenan.  For my much cooler friends he is well known as the lead singer for the heavy metal rock band, Tool.  The movie is a great story of Keenan trying to find a new way in life.  He moves to Arizona to get away from it all, to return to the earth and recharge.  Along the way he becomes interested in wine.  Here is a quote from his interview with the Wall Street Journal: "He came to appreciate wine as a consumer when he lived in Boston in the mid-1980s. A friend worked in a wine store near the city's North End. "There we were, summer in Boston, sitting on his roof," Mr. Keenan told me. "He'd bring home fantastic wines and grill salmon. To me, the biggest part of wine was the social part. That's what set the hook."

 I would say that was the hook for me as well.  It's pretty strange to have a hard rocker say that his attraction to wine was so similar to my own, when I was coming from the perspective of an ordained Lutheran minister!  Last week when we were visiting family in Arizona we ended up walking into Keenan and company's tasting room in Cottonwood, Arizona!  He has two different wine concerns and this one is called Stronghold.  The tasting room is bright and welcoming with a cozy, make-yourself-at-home southwestern jibe.  That's it in the photo to the right.
Our Host for the day was Kevin, the tasting room manager.  He is one of those guys who makes you feel comfortable and at home.  The tasting room was being slammed, and he was running around making sure everyone had a place, and also trying to find the wines he wanted to pour.  I didn't take specific notes, but some general impressions stuck with me.  First of all because of the owner and his background, and because the grapes were grown practically in the deserts of Mexico I was expecting huge over-extracted high alcohol wines.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  The wines were delicate with a very good acidic structure.  They use almost all neutral oak barrels, so the aromas of the wines really shine through.  We chose the red blend tasting.  The cost is $9 and includes a complimentary glass.  Robin and I shared the tasting, and the pours were very generous.  I really loved the Cochise Rhone style red blend.  It is widely available, and costs only $22.  
 I never thought I'd get to see Maynard's wines in the flesh, so it was a great experience.  We also got to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's famous western outpost Taliesin West.  I was impressed again with the fact that Wright didn't begin construction on this compound until his 70's!  (There is hope for all of us middle-aged people who haven't yet begun our great opus!)  Wright was following a Maynard-like impulse when he took up summer residence in Arizona.  Instead of simply drawing designs for the campus, he actually helped select the stones and place them in the walls.  It was decidedly hands on.  There are beautiful, wonderful things about Arizona (especially in the cooler days of November!)  Just don't expect me to move there upon retirement!

Arizona and Wine?

Robin and I recently returned from Arizona.  I had assumed that a trip to the Phoenix area would not include anything that had to do with wine.  I was wrong! 

 In the Sunday edition of the Arizona Republic was an article on the city of Cottonwood and their recent renewal.  It was a fascinating article.  You can read the article by clicking the link above, but I wanted to give an overview here.  It is the tale of a very unlikely wine promoter and urban renewal organizer named Doug Bartosh.  That's Doug standing on main street in the photo below.  He was a life-long law enforcement officer.  At some point he retired and took up the job of City Manager of Cottonwood.  It was a tough, run down town.  (Especially the Old Town section.)  It had become the center of the meth trade in the area.  The city cleaned up their drug problems and then went in search of new investors for their civic core.  

That's when Doug suggested they seek out wineries to fill their empty downtown buildings.  That is an impressive step for a former law-enforcement professional.  The city made it their mission to assist these new businesses in getting established.     

They didn't worry about the number of liquor licences being issued, and they even made it possible to enjoy a picnic at a local city park complete with a glass of wine (I wish some cities in Oregon would follow suit!)  The wonderful part of the experiment is that it worked.  The winery business has drawn big crowds to this little town which now includes a bakery, and several wonderful restaurants.   I'm always interested in how cities and towns find renewal.  Why do some downtown cores like ours in McMinnville thrive while others die on the vine?  It turns out that wine might be part of the answer.  Architecture also helps.  Downtown areas are more appealing when the businesses are located right on the street with only a sidewalk between the front door and the curb.  

It was really fun to visit this great little downtown and to see their renewal first hand.  Thanks to the Arizona Republic for the idea of heading off to Cottonwood.  (The photos for this blog are from the Arizona Republic article.)   

An Alternative Reality

It's time for me to confess one of my primary goals for this whole wine and theology project.  I want to cast an alternative reality.  Here is how I go about spreading my vision.  I take people to places of great beauty (like the one at Coeur de Terre Vineyard in the photo above) and then I have them taste exquisite wines made from the grapes of that estate.  The message is clear.  Creation is beautiful, and this perceivable beauty is a symbol of how much God loves you.  I have my work cut  out for me.  There are many other visions of reality out there, and we have a tendency to buy into them without even thinking about it.  

One of the prevalent visions comes from watching the evening news.  There you will see a frightening vision of the world--it is violent, and there are not enough resources to go around.  The message is one of fear.  All this despite the fact that violent crime statistics were down again in 2011 for the fifth straight year.  We live in a much safer and less dangerous world than we did 40 years ago, but you would never know it from watching TV.

Another competing vision comes from people of faith.  Many of them focus almost solely on God's judgement and the right belief which is required to keep us on good terms with God.  The older I get the less I care about a correct set of beliefs, and the
more I concentrate on God's loving initiative towards all people.  That's right ALL people.
I have been greatly influenced by where I live.  The Willamette Valley is so beautiful, and the vineyards that surround the valley amplify that beauty to me.  I don't know how you can visit one and not be struck by the beauty of God's creation.  The valley is also amazingly fertile.  God has blessed us abundantly.  It is everywhere to see.
So I continue to use people like Jacques at Coeur de Terre to spread my alternative life view.  We were up at the vineyard with the young woman who is staying with us this school year along with her parents.  Jacques has an amazing knowledge of wine.  He is the new tasting room manager and had only been on the job for three days when we visited.  He already knows more about the winery and the wines than I do after hanging out for significant amounts of time for several years!
Let me introduce you to my world view.  I think you would find it a great experience.

Larger Than Life

We were on our way up to Portland to see our granddaughter and wanted to stop and taste some wine.  Robin had never been to Ponzi Vineyards, so we turned left at Sherwood and wound our way up to the Ponzi Estate.  Right outside the tasting room are some 40 year old vines.  The base of the vines are huge and are covered in moss.  A stately oak tree frames the photo above.  It is the view you see from a corner window in the Ponzi tasting room.  Dick Ponzi a larger than life figure in the local wine scene, came to the valley in the late 60's and planted his own vineyard with the help of his wife, and their children.  Their are some great photos in the tasting room of the Ponzi children helping out with harvest and crush.  Their daughter is now the winemaker for the estate.  Dick and his wife, Nancy not only have the winery, but also are the bright visionaries behind the Dundee Bistro.  They also own a brewery in Portland.   

 Another larger than life wine personality is Moe Momtazi, the owner of Maysara Winery.  We were up tasting at Maysara this weekend and I am totally blown away by their new building.  The lower section is now paved and it is enormous.  Those are real people in the background of the photo above, and that gives you some idea of the size of this space.  The beautiful arched doors are also impressive.  There are a number of things about this building that I love.  First, it was built almost entirely from materials from the estate.  Much of the oak lining the walls are barrel staves that have been straightened out and attached to the walls.  The pillars are all firs which were harvested on sight as well.  Likewise the beautiful stone work was gathered from around the vineyard.
I can see some great community events taking place in this new space.  I also love that Moe decided to build the new structure to keep his crew at his truss company employed and working during this economic downturn.

 The tasting room is in a cave like area to one side of the huge structure.  You can see the beautiful doors made from oak harvested on the premises in the photo above.  They act as a frame for the beautiful view of the vineyard beyond.  We were treated to a tasting by one of Moe's daughters, Hannah.  She is a very social, talkative and loving young woman.  I always feel like I'm a friend of the family when I visit with her.  She has the gift of making me feel very welcomed and at home.
I can't believe that Moe has built up this vineyard and winery in not much more time than I have lived in Oregon.  My thoughts and prayers with be with Moe and his family this coming week as he is headed for a medical procedure.  I love this family and wish them all the best.