It's a new year and a new growing season: spring is cookin', and in an effort to keep the wine conversation evolving, we're up to some weird shit. Sometimes, when I sit down to write a release letter and find myself only interested in explaining a wine by comparing it to a tarot card, I can't help but wonder if we've "jumped the shark." Is there a place for the woo-woo, the mysterious, the spiritual in wine, or are we trying to shove a pentagram-shaped peg into a round hole? But that's when I remember Biodynamics!
You know, biodynamics is like organic farming, but they plant in accordance with the moon, there are lots of animals in the vineyard, and they do the thing where they put manure in a cowhorn and bury it in the ground for six months. Biodynamics is the brainchild of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian architect and social reformer who founded Waldorf education. He was also an occultist and clairvoyant who started his own neo-gnostic spiritual philosophy (religion) that he called anthroposophy. While organic farming might be criticized by some (Voldemort types) as idealistic, it's still founded in hard science. Biodynamics, however, basically tells organic farming to "hold my beer" and levitates squarely into the realm of pseudoscience: scientifically informed, but taking lots of liberties.
For many, the very notion of pseudoscience is painfully cringy, and while I'd say we definitely need to have a clear distinction between science fiction and science fact, everything we take for granted as hard science today would have been considered "pseudo" in the past. For many, it would seem, the status quo of scientific thought is incontrovertible (just like we have thought in every previous era). But to me, the dogmatic dismissal of mysterious arenas yet to be fully defined or explained in the name of "objective inquiry"is frankly contrary to science's stated goal. As someone who has personally experienced gleaming unprecedented insight from shuffling a tarot deck, I'm a strong proponent of the concept that some things (particularly archaic things) work in practice but not in theory, and that in some instances, maybe science is still catching up with how to satisfactorily explain them.
Cutting edge scientific discoveries about how forests and plants can communicate and cooperate through mycorrhizal fungi, and revived interest in ideas like "panpsychism" to confront the "hard problem of consciousness," make me more convinced than ever that, to be honestly engaged and evolving with the world around us, we should be thinking outside the box, and not bounding ourselves inside it.
All this is to say, in the context of growing and making wine, I think it's great that Biodynamics is thinking outside the box: marrying science, ecology, philosophy and spirituality — and that's why I'm not interested in practicing it myself. If we extended this way of thinking to making music, it would be like saying, "Well, The Stooges just reinvented rock music, everyone stop trying to innovate and start cover bands of The Stooges." As a bona fide weirdo with a vineyard and winery, I think it's time we find our own cowhorn full of manure! Our first experiment: Talismanic Wine, and drinking with intention.
People have been making talismans for as long as we have a written record of history, and arguably, the impulse is as fundamental to our species as making art or telling stories. At the simplest level, a lucky penny, a power suit, and a wedding ring are all examples of talismans. On one level, a talisman is some sort of object or material that can act as a physical reminder of an oath, inspiration, lesson, or idea — on another level, a talisman can be like a battery, charged by its creator with religious, magical, or intentional power intended to influence the individual it was created for. If you think the full moon offers you a specific advantageous influence in life, then you can either restrict all of your big moves in life to times when the moon is full, or you can make a talisman charged by the full moon to bring this influence to you every day, or whenever you need it. Or, for the less moon inclined, if you think your outlook on life is better on Friday than on Monday, theoretically you could make a "Friday Talisman" to wear on Mondays, and see if it improves your week.
We typically think of talismans as objects — something we can wear or keep in our pockets — but a Rogue Valley local (not sure what job title to ascribe to her...) Talismanic Mage (?), named Kaitlin Coppock has been revolutionizing the approach through her company Sphere + Sundry. She makes talismans you can wear, steep, smoke, take a bath in, all attuned to a carefully selected moment in astrological time — think of it like a birth chart not left up to chance, and optimized for a desired effect. Playing around with some of the Sphere + Sundry products got my wheels spinning . . . what if we could make a talismanic . . . wine? As a staunch proponent that wine is far more than a beverage — and historically has been treated as an entheogen — this seemed like a no-brainer.
The first step in making a talisman is deciding what it's for. Looking for something "big tent" and useful for nearly anyone, I turned to the alluring and beautifully kitschy line-up of novena 7-Day prayer candles you might spot at a Mexican grocery store, or a Hoodoo-themed tourist trap in New Orleans. Alongside a candle to petition the Virgen de Guadalupe, you might find a green candle for "Fast Luck," or a red "Hot Foot" candle to drive someone annoying out of your life, a yellow "Lucky Buddha" candle for enhancing your well-being, or a pink "Return to Me" love candle. These novena candles are a fascinating representation of melting-pot folk magic, fusing elements from Rootwork and Hoodoo, Santería and Brujería, Catholicism, and European Witchcraft — and charmingly accessible.
As a small business owner with a penchant for biting off more than he can chew, a favorite novena candle of mine has been the orange "Abre Camino" or "Road Opener" candle. The origin of the term "Road Opener" in the context of folk magic comes from the Santería tradition, referring to the cure-all herb thoroughwort, known colloquially as "Abre Camino." The goal of a "road opener" intention setting (spell) is to clear obstacles from your path and open doors, whether you're looking for some inspiration, hoping for a new career opportunity, seeking to clear out some limiting circumstances from your life, or hoping to literally not get stuck in traffic. The way I see it, who couldn't use some orange wine and open roads?
To channel the energy of the Road Opener's orange candle, we decided to tap our favorite orange wine: the Rogue Valley Savagnin Rose Musqué we've been experimenting on for the past few years. Fermented whole cluster, our Savagnin Rose Musqué is exquisitely perfumed, and simultaneously juicy, rich, and exploratory. Something about this wine has always led me to contemplate thinking outside of the box and appreciating the novelty that can arise from uninhibited creativity — pleasurable and fun, but in a way that invites you to ask yourself "why?"
Now that our talismanic wine-to-be had its intention set, the next step was to get a little witchy. If there's a planetary attribute most conducive to opening roads, it's that of Mercury — the fast-paced, smooth-talking, deal maker of a planetary intelligence — so getting positively "grimoiric," we planned our picks, pressing, and bottling around the planetary day and hour of Mercury. Achieving peak "psychic terroir," we burned mercurial herbs, and made a "road opening" playlist that we cranked at each step of the winemaking process — think playing classical music for a potted plant, but weirder. We also got up to a little proprietary secret sauce that we can only disclose to any like-minded wineries interested in becoming certified freaky, and we knew the wine was ready when it started tasting distinctly charmed and uninhibited.
Now, listen: I know some of you are just here for the wine, so regardless of your metaphysical beliefs (or lack thereof), let me explain "Talismanic Wine" in a more grounded way. From a practical and psychological perspective, the exercise of engaging with something like making or drinking a talismanic wine is fundamentally about drinking with intention. I had a great conversation with winemaker Hardy Wallace (of Interdimensional Wine Co. Yeah!) on my podcast "Psychic Terroir" last month, and we spent a large part of the show talking about the notion of intentional drinking.
Living through a moment where the topic of alcohol is becoming more stigmatized from a health and wellness perspective (as opposed to a moral perspective) than maybe any other time, I think the best rebuttal for those who choose to drink (and can maintain a positive relationship with drinking) is drinking with intention. There is alcohol in wine, but wine itself is not just alcohol. Wine can be consumed as an afterthought, but more than most beverages, it still holds a powerful place in our psyche, and whether we're commemorating opening a business, celebrating an anniversary with bubbles, drinking a glass of the local rosé on vacation and bringing some home to remind you of the experience, or having a "no bullshit" talk with a friend going through a tough time over a bottle, wine is one of the last bastions of ritual still prevalent in the secular world.
So I'm inviting you to open a bottle of our "Road Opener" Savagnin Rose Musqué — not as an afterthought, but as a ritual — and try to drink it intentionally. Throw on our "Road Opener" playlist, feel the vibes, take a sip, and think about what road you want opened, or what obstacles are currently in your way. Maybe the circumstance is something intimate and you want to share the bottle with someone you're close to, or maybe you want to try it with a group at a dinner party, or hanging out on the beach or at a campground. For the duration of your experience with the wine — whether it's a glass or a few — try only thinking about and talking about the obstacles blocking your metaphorical "road" and how you can clear them away.
Magic or not, I can tell you one thing: trying to work through an obstacle or find some inspiration in this way will absolutely feel different than if you try to approach it more mundanely. If you can focus your intention throughout, let loose, and be truly open with your friend or family or partner, I can guarantee that you'll come out the other side of this shared bottle with new insights about your life, your dreams, and your desires. The effects of any talismanic juju we may have imparted would really just be a bonus, because the magic ingredient here is really just wine itself, being consumed with intention.
Here's to doing more with wine in 2024.
Cheers,
Chad