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Ladies and gentlemen, I've come upon a startling realization: I am not the smartest person in the world. I know this is shocking - I've been struggling with the epiphany myself for sometime.
Thanks to my time here at this university I have learned many lessons, not the least of which being the one I mentioned above. Now, given a measure of space within this periodical in which I am allowed to pontificate to you, I feel it is appropriate that I bequeath unto you, dear reader, at least one of the lessons learned here at this institution of higher learning.
My lesson is that we humans are like wine.
As we begin our journey at the tender young age of zero, we are protected, watched over, nurtured and patiently waited on to mature into responsible adults that can contribute to society, much as wine is expected to age into a potent, yet refined, beverage that contributes meaningfully to a romantic meal or debauched gathering.
Eventually we begin to age into our roles as societal wine. Some of us inherit our responsibilities early in life, leaving the winery and, like young wines, are opened early into the aging process and thrust into the bosom of society. Expected to serve the party to the best of our abilities.
Others take longer to mature, slowly earning their credentials as fine wine and preparing to attend the most important and snobbish wine tasting trips and galas available.
Our relation to wine continues, as we age and become more and more attractive to potential suitors. We become sexier wines, flaunting our aging process, flavor and alcohol content. Eventually we age into respectable wines, which people turn to when in need of a wine that is mature and dependable.
We age until we reach an age where no one wants to open us or drink us, and we become more of societies collector's item. Placed upon a shelf and reverently ignored by younger wines, save for the passing comments that we are the model to be aspired to thanks to our experiences and wisdom.
And while I may not have much room to extrapolate on the subject, I believe we can assume that wines, like people, are culturally indicative of the area they originate from. French wines are like French people, Australian wines are like Australians and German wines are beer.
Yes, we humans have much in common with alcoholic grape juice. It takes time for us to grow into the people we want to be.
We make mistakes along the way, and become richer for the experience. We learn and become more full bodied. We get hurt and our flavor changes. We share successes and victories with the bottles on the shelf around us and we become tied together as representatives of our wineries.
We age slowly, purposefully, just waiting for that right dinner to come along that we complement so perfectly and they do the exact same for us.
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