Narrow Road to a Far Province
The sun and the moon are eternal wayfarers; the years that come and go are travelers too.
A lifetime
adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years,
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
From the
earliest times there have always been some who perished along the road.
Still I have always been drawn by windblown clouds into dreams
of a lifetime of wandering.
Basho (1644-1694)
Wine as food is wine integrated into a culinary culture: wine needing food and an evening of ease to show its full potential, wine beginning with a central idea on the first glass and developing themes from there on out, wine showing its colors as the meal progresses, wine not honored until mid meal, and wine as slow food.
In a well-located restaurant, three fine gentlemen sat around a table, choosing a Cambiata Tannat to accompany their meal. They noted the intense indigo color in an outright positive way but not being familiar with Tannat’s aromas and textures, having no assessment scale based on the grape’s typical attributes, a mental picture to draw against, no preconceived vinous expectations beyond the sommelier’s recommendation, they were unable to quickly sum up the rustic wine. They were intrigued more than impressed by the Tannat. The food came; they ate. They were warming towards the wine, however needing more time and stock to develop a complete language, they ordered another bottle. Their meal near completion, by then a third bottle on the table, they felt that indeed the Tannat, applying its structure like few other selections, was a fine wine - that’s the story I was told by the good-humored sommelier.
The Cambiata project: An adventurous interpretation of old world wines – Inspiration from regression, summoning the keepers of old customs.
Goethe: “Everything has been thought of before; the task is to think of it again in ways that are appropriate in one’s current circumstances.”
Faulkner: “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.”