A Year in the Vineyard - Sophie Menin Pt. 3

>> Forrest: Welcome. Welcome, to the Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast with Forrest Kelly.

>> Sophie Menin: Hi, I'm Sophie Menin, and I'm, the co author of A Year in the Vineyard, the Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast.

>> Forrest: As you were compiling and putting the book A Year in the vineyard together, was there a newfound appreciation or a feeling of an elevated appreciation?

>> Sophie Menin: I have the highest regard for Wine growers. It is work that takes dedication, knowledge, patience, vision, and time. And so to be able to document it, to have people take time to explain in detail the work that they do and then fact check with you to make sure you got it right and share images of their work with you, it's really a privilege. And, we're grateful to everybody who helped us put this together. Farce. Do you have the finished book or do you have the PDF?

>> Forrest: I have the PDF.

>> Sophie Menin: I have to get you a finished book. I almost cried when I received it. It is so beautiful. It's a linen cover. The title's in silver. the photograph on the COVID is tipped in. It was printed in Italy at a printer halfway between Verona and Venice. It is a beautiful, beautiful object. Besides being, I think, in my opinion, a worthwhile book, did you want to.

>> Forrest: Throw in how great your co author is?

>> Sophie Menin: I would love to throw in how great my co author is.

Bob Chaplin and I collaborated on creating this book. No matter who did the reporting for a particular story,

>> Forrest: Okay. All right. Letter rip.

>> Sophie Menin: Bob Chaplin's English, and he's an environmental artist and an artisanal bookmaker. And it has just been the most extraordinary collaboration. No matter who did the reporting for a particular story, I would do the writing, and Bob would edit me, and then Bob would design the pages, and we would go over those together. You'll notice that each page has a textured background painting, and those are actually scans from Bob's artwork. And he has pieces that have been collected in M major museums that are like this, that are combinations of words and textures and images. And so he brought all of that visual storytelling, he might call them visual poems, into this work, which is why I think it works on so many levels. It works on a visual level, it works on a story level. And then there's this feeling of moving through the background textures, that the words are related to the images, and that the colors and textures take you through the seasons, and you almost don't notice it because it's so well integrated. He did an extraordinary job, you know, reading the book.

>> Forrest: I can understand why I would buy the book, because I can read and feel the dedication and the science and the art and the culture of Wine production and how all that happens. But what would be your reason.

>> Sophie Menin: Oh, you should buy this book because it's a sensual, beautiful journey through the seasons from vineyards around the world. It's a beautiful object. We're really proud of it. And there's a lot of good stories about a lot of special people in a lot of special places.

Sophie Menin: We have a lot to learn from wine growers

>> Forrest: As we bring our conversation to a conclusion, I just wanted to say that there was a couple of quotes, and you picked them out, the start, the book, and it just kind of, as I was reading the whole book, these kind of two quotes just kind of resonated with me and stayed with me throughout the entire book. Richard Long said, the first one, I like the idea of using the land without possessing it. And then a chinese proverb was the other one. The footstep of the farmer is the best fertilizer. Those are just two great thoughts to think about and to learn from.

>> Sophie Menin: We have a lot to learn right, from Wine growers. Just like you said, you're not a drinker, but there's so much to learn from the process of growing Wine. Richard Feynman, he was a Nobel. I think he was a physicist. He said, you can learn about the whole world in a glass of Wine. It's one of the great quotes.

>> Forrest: Yeah, I love that quote from his book, the pleasure of finding things out. That thought is reinforced in the book, A Year in the vineyards, on how Wine growers are taking a holistic approach. Were there other Wine growers that kind of were taking that approach, too?

>> Sophie Menin: An example, when I interviewed Ted Lemon about why he's planting, redwood trees along the river area of his farm and vineyard in Sebastopol, he had this great quote where he said, you know, we can't recreate the world of the 17 hundreds. That world's long gone, but we have to create a new way of living. And to start, we need a new way of farming. And it just, I was so grateful because that just summed up so many of the themes in the book and why it's important to look at the choices that these venereal are making, because they're living climate change right now, because it impacts their day to day, their Year to Year. It's not something off in the distance. And so to really look at the adaptations they're making has a lot to teach the rest of us. Forrest: A, Year in the Vineyard Get yourself a copy or get a Wine enthusiast a copy. You can do it at sophiemenin.com. sophiemenin.com it was great talking with you, Sophie. Thank you very much. For being a guest, and I look forward to the book being a big success.

>> Sophie Menin: Thank you. Wonderful. Great to meet you.

>> Forrest: The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast.

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