Jacob Philipp Hackert “Autumn Wine Harvest with View of Sorrento, the Gulf and the Islands”
Five Ways
Your
Wine
Grows
And why it matters.
By Eric Cook
40
ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
T
he subject of wine is so vast it can easily be intimidating to just
begin to enjoy it. But it is only complex, not complicated. Among
the variables of what grapes to grow and where, there is also an
impact from how they grow.
Human cultures of the Near East have collected winegrapes since
they found them growing up trees, their natural habitat. Wine could
be made as long as we had pottery to hold it in, roughly 7,500 years
BCE to hear the archaeologists tell it. But vines growing up trees
do not make many grapes — or very good ones it seems.
Growing up trees, vines compete for sunshine, water and nutrients;
so, long ago, we moved them out of the forest and onto the
hillsides where they could thrive. We discovered vines do not
need the fertile ground we needed for corn or wheat. Vines content
themselves struggling up the rocky outcrops alongside the olive
trees. So that’s where they’ve survived for more than 8,000 years.