You stand before the Y in the road, one goes up one goes down, both lead to your destination. A new business, a new life, a new future. So do you climb the hill, take the struggle? Let’s frame the question in a different way. Opportunity is at the end of both roads.
However, the struggle climbing the highway with the upper grade will reveal something more rewarding, not measured in profit. No this is the road of fools, or so speaks the voice of Business elites who deal in bottom lines, and balance sheets. The easy road leads you to wealth, success and an easier life. The hard road leads to struggle, plight and if you survive originality, quality, and respect.

Left to the business community as a whole wine has become, well a business. The art of making a fine wine is replaced by numbers. Example, instead of native yeast, cultivated super yeast so everything finishes no matter how ripe, instead of oak barrels, oak chips, instead of green drops, every berry hits the fermenter. Cheap corks, cheap bottles, cheap labels and cheap salary cost. Does anyone believe the wines of Mondavi, B.V. and Beringer are the same as they once were? Corporate could never conceive of such sacrifice to quality ratios, only the bottom line.

Passion squandered, Art Censored, and all in the name of profit. I say nay, and will forever fight the battle. Wine is not beer, it is a higher calling and I love beer! But this beverage is suppose to be something more. It’s suppose to be an expression of all that is good, all that is right, and arose that passion within ourselves. Gallo has a Million Gallon Tank, the biggest tank we own is 900 gallons. On second thought given the choice between wine from a million gallon tank and Beer, well that’s a no brainer.

No for me it’s the road skyward, the hard road to originality. I don’t suggest my way is the only way but I won’t have censorship disguised as profit stop me. I often sit and wonder what Rembrandt would have said if told he could not use green, or blue or red paint. If  Michael Angelo could not use marble, instead only granite. Let’s make sure I’m clear I’m not putting us in a class of such royalty but the example works and get’s the point across. Art vs. profit, expression vs. censorship, Corporate control vs. self control? You tell me. I’ve said it before if you’re going to consume to get annihilated, then drink cheap. If you’re going to truly enjoy the ultimate beverage and appreciate it for all it is, that which is beyond a simple drink then do it well. If budgetary considerations are a factor then drink better but drink less you will be happier and healthier because you did.

“They that compromise their ethics, also sacrifice their soul” Who said that? Me!

To life without compromise.

Greg Linn
www.unfilteredwinereport.com

Art Credit to artist Kowta Rammohan Sastri