The Art of Becoming

Coming to a place where the drinking age is 18, the approach to alcohol here is so drastically different than the United States for people my age. Binge drinking, evading the cops, sneaking alcohol around, and trying to not get a minor seem to be like a typical thing back in the states. Coming to Europe, I was excited to get to experience what it is like to focus on actually enjoying alcohol in public places. Right away, there was an urge to binge drink. The drinks here have a higher alcohol content and it is so much easier (and cheaper) to get a buzz or even drunk. When I looked around at the bar, though, I mostly saw Americans or visitors from outside of Europe. I realized that Europeans, and especially Italians, do not participate in binge drinking. This experience in Rome has really been a learning curve to focus more on enjoying the good stuff in smaller quantities rather than binge drinking.

The Rome Empower Program gave us the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the wine culture of Italy and reflect on the responsibility and pleasure it is to drink good alcohol. Last Sunday we took a group trip the little town of Orvieto to a winery called Decugnano dei Barbi. I absolutely love wine and for a very long time have had a dream about one day owning a vineyard and making my own wine. I was very excited about learning more about the process and the behind the scenes information of a winery. Our tour guide was new to the company, but still provided so many interesting facts and insights about this vineyard, company, Umbria, Orvieto, and wine culture in Italy.

He started it off by giving us an old Italian saying that I believe reflects life greatly. “Never take a step longer than your leg”. What I took away from this saying it to always take a step that is strong, solid, and comfortable for what you are able to do. Italy is highly romanticized and so is wine culture. At this specific winery it is family-owned, only has twelve full-time workers, does not higher seasonal employees, and only produces 120,000 bottles each year. While this sounds like a lot, compared to other companies it really is quite a small amount. This micro-production makes sure that the quality is the highest that it can be and that the family focus of the business stays true throughout production. They do everything from growing and tending to the vines to bottling the wine. The guide stressed how the family wants their workers to grow with the wine. They would rather have fewer people who know this place, their values, and the importance of wine deeply. I really enjoy this aspect of this vineyard, coming from a small farming community. It made me emotional to think about how all over the world there are families out there who are just trying to make a living but also produce the best thing that they are capable of. The love and dedication and faith it takes to put all that you have into farming will be something that is always with me, and something that is important when thinking of what you buy. I have heard many stories of Italians who get to have sips of wine when they are as young as five, just because their grandfather wants them to experience what he has made. Family businesses are ingrained into you and should be reveled in the power that they have to positively influence so many people.

This area of Italy has a deep history in the production of wines. What makes this vineyard special, though, is that they take their recipes and style of products straight from the Etruscans. This pride is reflected when the guide went on about the correct way of drinking wine. This way is to be acutely aware of what you are drinking and actually taste it, instead of just downing it like heathens. You want to feel the taste of the soil and land and history of the wine with every sip. You want to visit vineyards and see behind the scenes to know you are getting a good product. You want to smell the wine. Smelling the wine brings me to something that the guide said that really stuck with me. He said when you smell it you should be smelling a reflection of yourself. You should be connecting it to an old memory or something close to your heart so that this wine means more than just another beverage. Wine is a connector of people, places, ideas, and emotions. Even though we were obviously drinking some really good and highly prized wine, the guide made sure to stress that you do not have to buy expensive wine. So often, people think that drinking wine is a matter of status quo. It does not mean that you are rich or that you are a great person. Drinking wine should be something that you enjoy because you are around the people that you love and want to be with. The wine does not create the dream or experience. You create the experience.

I personally like red wine better which is an anomaly in my Rome Empower group. Out of the twenty-seven students, only me and Kenna prefer red over white. At the winery, we tasted a sparkling white wine, still white wine, and then a red wine. Although I prefer red, the two other whites were really good too. I think that I liked both of these due to the tour guide pushing the idea of being open and deeply connecting yourself to what you are drinking. He stressed that the taste of the wine and how you consume it should be a justification for the process of making the wine. Are you trying to figure out what the creator wanted to stress when the wine was made? This drinking with a specific purpose definitely influenced how refined, comfortable, and proud I was to try all these wines. As soon as I tasted the red wine, I fell in love with it. I could taste the amount of care and time that has gone into creating this wine. In the end, I bought two bottles of their special edition red wine to take home. I am excited to share my newfound and ever-evolving knowledge and perspective on drinking and wine with my friends and family. The whole process of wine is centered around this idea of “the art of becoming”. It takes time and deep thought to make a good wine that reflects the land, soil, culture, people, history, and creators of wine. In a way, this truly reflects what I am going through right now in Italy. I am becoming more of who I want to be while learning all these amazing things. The wine becomes what it is due to tender care and being led in the direction that it wants to go. How am I taking care of myself? Am I surrounding myself with people who are leading me in the direction that I want to go to?