Announcing the Oregon Wine Cuinsinternship Winner

October 4 2009

There is something quixotic about falling in love. Since time immemorial couples have captured it and drunk its nectar yielding a heady absence of rational thought coupled with a passionate sensibility that anything is possible. For many, love is impossibly addictive—always seeking the freshness of feeling that comes from giving yourself over to something that is bigger than you. For others, the drunken song that empowers but renders us helpless grows into something stronger, deeper, and lasting.

In many respects, wine enthusiasm isn’t much different than falling in love – it’s elusive, it’s mystifying and it can cause a life-long chase for the alchemy that occurs when je ne sais quoi meets up with time, circumstance and effort.

I was a 2nd round judge for the winemaker promotion portion of the recently wrapped up Oregon Cuisinternship program. The eventual winner of the contest, as selected by Lynn Penner-Ash, the hostess for the one-week internship, from Penner-Ash winery, probably saw the same thing that I did. David Katz and his girlfriend Virginia, from Los Angeles, did an amazing trick – they managed to capture a sense of love, of passion, a feeling that anything is possible and they married it with wine. For that, they earned the one week harvest internship at the winery with Lynn.

I caught up with David and asked him to elaborate on his interest in wine. Katz noted, “Every time I have been to a vineyard, I always leave having learned a great deal. I love the idea of having to take a risk on something that you had to work very hard on in order for it to succeed. All the elements have to come together in just the right way to yield that amazing bottle of wine.”

True words, David, true words. And, he unwittingly also described the process of sustaining love over a period of time.

Congrats to David and Virginia. May they continue to find wisdom in the glass and nourish that drunken song that comes with being in love, for the long haul.