On the Unsubtle Arts of Recreation and Discipline
Dear Friends,
If you love a little counter-cultural movement as much as I do, may I suggest a glass of wine with your most amusing friends? If you want to feel a little wicked, do it in public. I’m telling you it is revolutionary to have a good time, so waste not a moment longer and exercise your right to a good time.
I do love hard work. The most fertile substrate for growth is in suffering’s sweet spot, be it mental, physical or metaphysical. Only through bitterness can we experience the whole of sweetness. I confess that sometimes, I need the juice to remind me that it’s the reason for the squeeze.
The word recreate is from the Latin, recreāre, meaning ‘to restore, revive, or make anew’. To ‘refresh or cheer’ oneself is the goal of recreation. Discipline, also from Latin discere, ‘to learn’ has nothing in its roots about punishment or suffering.
I have fallen in love with Chenin Blanc an unmentionable number of times; the kind of love that makes you wait too long to ask her to dance with you. The allure, of course, is her chameleon ways. She poses a delicious challenge: she will read you down to your very intention. When we picked the first Hope Well Chenin Blanc I had dreams about it until it was finished and in the bottle. Tortured, I am. I do not hope to achieve in my lifetime the kind of ecological healing I’m working for. But I love that she reads it honestly as we make progress.
The 2025 Chenin Blanc is ready to reveal her song of 2025. And if you find the atmosphere a little…much these days, she loves a table al fresco, some amigos and we don’t care if it’s Wednesday. It’s not a great time to ship, I know. But if you want some, we will hold it for you, and if you’re local, you can pick it up.
And if you’d also like some Pinot to sip with your amigos under the sweet peas, may I suggest Hope Well 2023 Pinot Noir?
Let it be a credit to my historian parents that in composing the subject of this particular threshold missive, the sage wisdom in Martin Luther’s letter to his friend Jerome Weller walked, letter-by-letter, over the mountains of time and lost no wisdom in the journey. ‘Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, aye, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles.’ Your lips to God’s ears, Marty.
~ Mimi
All current wines are available for purchase here.
Information about previous vintages of Hope Well wines is available here.