November 9 2011
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…
The Power of Intent in Biodynamic Wine
I wrote a heady post in September about Biodynamic wine. The story is too complicated to summarize here (link to post), but one of the things that I touched on (and that interests me on an ongoing basis) is the notion of “intent” in the vineyard particularly as it relates to viticultural quality and Biodynamic preparations.
They say that you can taste “love” in a food dish, so, while not scientifically quantifiable (at least not yet), it stands to reason that extra attention and loving preparation with BioD preps. might have a positive benefit on the vines and subsequently the wines.
This notion of intent isn’t my idea; I culled it from Voodoo Vintners, Katherine Cole’s Biodynamic-related book published earlier this year (she has a different supposition about ‘intent’ than I do). A passage from the book notes, “The belief is that the preparations aren’t merely herbal treatments for plants; they’re carriers of the farmers’ intentions, which have been swirled into them through the powerful act of stirring. While it isn’t a requirement for Demeter certification, intention is that little bit of witchcraft that separates the most committed practitioners from the unbelievers.”
My point in September and my point now is that “intent” isn’t witchcraft, its science – science that is still emerging and not completely understood.
To that end, I read an incredible, eye-opening, mind-bending article in the current issue of Time magazine about a new technology device called the BodyWave. An iPod sized device, the BodyWave is based on electroencephalography (EEG), the study of how brain activity excites neurons to emit brain waves that travel the central nervous system and can be measured.
So, here’s the thing. Not only can this BodyWave device measure the fluctuations in the brain’s electrical activity, but when connected to a computer it can perform functions based on brain waves.
It’s a holy crap moment to realize that by focusing brain activity somebody can shut off a valve in a nuclear power plant, via computer, with the power of their mind, as elaborated on in the article.
The full Time magazine article is subscriber-protected (darn publishers that try to run a business…), but the intro. to the article is available here.
I’m a liberal arts guy, as far removed from science as one can get by education, vocation and lifelong learning interest, but I do have the ability to suspend my disbelief and it seems likely to me that in 10 years’ time the Biodynamic conversation is going to be around an entirely different set of conversational conditions than the current ‘bunkum vs. belief’ precept that we have now.
On Knowledge
I’ve never reconciled the “demystify” vs. “knowledge frees you” debate as it relates to wine. Many will say that wine is needlessly overcomplicated for the average consumer and the arcane aspects act as a barrier to entry.
Well, sometimes you find defining wisdom in the unlikeliest places.
Scott Adams, the creator of the cartoon Dilbert, noted in a blog post recently what I’ve thought, but have never been able to say quite so eloquently.
Indeed, you are what you learn. You don’t have to know much about wine to drink it, but it sure makes it that much more enjoyable if you lean into the door…
Thanksgiving Wine Recommendation
Thanksgiving is the wine world’s national holiday. I get that. It’s my favorite holiday, too. But, the attendant wine pairing articles are exhausting. Does it really matter what you drink with Thanksgiving dinner? Nope. If it did, somebody, anybody would care that I’ll be having Sparkling Rose, German Riesling and New Zealand Pinot, but, really, nobody cares. At the end of the day, the below picture encapsulates what really matters when picking a wine for Thanksgiving (Hint: Focus on the food).
It Was a Good Week for Lot18
My eyes bugged out like a virgin at a nudist camp when I saw that Lot18 secured $30M in additional funding. That money coupled with clarification from the California Alcohol Beverage Control (CA ABC) on some wonkiness in legalities, means the first week of November 2011 will go down as a watershed moment for Lot18.
Perhaps equally interesting to me is a passage noting, “Radical Transparency” in an email sent to Lot18 members from Lot18 (ostensibly founder Phillip James). The email noted:
As Lot18 moves into its second year of existence, our goal is to ensure that, with more money in the bank and compliance questions behind us, Lot18 can continue to deliver on its responsibilities to our suppliers and to our members alike. We must hold ourselves accountable to ensure we maintain trust with everyone who produces and consumes goods offered by Lot18.
We do this through a policy called Radical Transparency, which simply involves sharing more than was once considered wise. We believe in this because it drives our focus and ensures that all of our employees and our members feel that they have a role in shaping our future. Together we can create a service that will not only help you find great value, but also encourage you to spread the word to friends and family so that they may also share in the delight.
We’re all aware of “transparency” as an online buzzword the last several years. It’s a word that has been co-opted, commoditized and rendered meaningless, as well. It seems, transparency is really code word for faux sincerity and empathy and that makes adding the modifier of “Radical” to transparency all the more interesting.
These days, every new business success story comes with hagiographic mythologizing and I wouldn’t be surprised if, in this area, “Radical Transparency” is where Lot18 stakes their claim. After all, culture and customer service is already taken by Zappos.
Yet, radical transparency isn’t a new concept either. If you’re interested in seeing how a hedge fund called Bridgewater Associates (founded by Ray Dalio) has codified a brutally honest feedback loop see this profile piece from New York magazine and Dalio’s 123 page “Principles” document (worth the read).
Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (16) |
Joe,
You skimmer, you.
I think I said everything you said so actually we agree!
Jeff
Jeff:
“Intent”? BioD?
Really?
“it stands to reason that extra attention and loving preparation with BioD preps. might have a positive benefit on the vines and subsequently the wines.”
How?
Does it stand to reason that if I farm conventionally, stand in the middle of my vineyard and chant from the “The Book of Ucdavis” with the intent of improving the grapes that it will have a positive effect on the vines?
I love you, man. But….
Tom,
Yeah, it’s tough to swallow in a rationale view.
But, I’ve done a ton of reading, and while it’s considered junk science right now, and I need to be careful not to turn myself into a crackpot, there’s something in the whole power of the mind, quantum mechanics, intent realm.
I mean, holy crap, a dude concentrated and mentally turned a valve on a computer screen wearing the BodyWave hooked up to the computer via USB at a nuclear power plant. That Time article is crazy.
If you extrapolate that, it’s not too far of a leap to suggest that the intent in the prep of the preps. in BioD might provide some good juju.
Jeff
wow, bioD never fails to rile-up the skeptics.
Jeff, since you are interested in the concept of intent, you might be interested in a project that we are working on at my current winery, called the “1899 project”. we make a wine without any electricity - it is horse drawn, hand-destemmed, punched down by foot, pressed with a hand crank press, etc. this is the first time we try it, and nobody knows what to expect, but i am hoping that the intention behind the wine will lead to an intangible quality. i will keep you posted as things develop.
finally, i have really been into ‘themed thanksgivings’ for wine lately. last year was pinot noir, the year before was champagne. this year, i am thinking ‘riesling thanksgiving!’
Here’s another view from a skeptic:
If intent has power, to me it is the intent of the farmer that drives he or she to a certain level of commitment. So, a farmer committed to treating the vineyard with careful respect (however that respect is defined in farming terms) it’s likely the farmer will also treat the wines with the same level of careful respect.
Beyond that, I can’t see how a farmer or winemaker can pass intent to a consumer—it’s the product that the consumer drinks, not the farmer. What the consumer may get is the farmer’s intent in the form of a carefully tended product, but at the point of consumption, without knowing or actualizing what that careful intent interprets into in the consumer’s body, what does the intent matter?
As an aside, the one and only sci-fi essay I have ever written was done in a junior high school English class. I wrote my vision of the future of humanity, which was that we would lose the need for limbs and even for torsos, becoming strictly brain matter that “walk” the earth, communicating through electrical impulses.
I wrote the essay right after the launch of Sputnik!
here is a different opinion on the effect of intent from poet kahlil gibran:
if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.
gab,
Interesting to use Gibran’s words as an example of the power of intent.
To give you a more focused picture of Gibran’s intent, I suggest that you give a careful read to a true biography of the Lebanese poet/writer.
Gab,
I love the idea of your 1899 project. Please do keep me posted!
Jeff
gab,
I, too, am interested in what your 1899 project produces.
As for a Riesling Thanksgiving: done it more than once with marvelous outcome.
That Time article is crazy.
That’s a gneueilny impressive answer.
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About “Field Notes from a Wine Life” whatever you shared here seems to me pretty outstanding from all side. Thanks mate. 
I, too, am interested in what your 1899 project produces.
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Intention is not, in fact, science, my man. At least not *yet*. It’s not a science any more than intelligent design is a science.
That doesn’t mean that intention cannot impact events - it just cannot do so in any way that fits the definition of a *measurable* science (measured via experimentation).
There have been studies done some years that showed that a subject’s intention (brain waves) *might* change the outcome of a test computer program that effectively did a heads/tails random outcome (I’m not making this up!) by less than 1% difference - encouraging, but to my knowledge never duplicated and certainly never tested in an open, complex system like a farm.
So I think what you’re really trying to say is that intention could impact farming and therefore wine; but we cannot yet measure that, and so I guess what I’m asking is, given all that, are you predicting that it will become a measurable science someday?