I’m not religious but I was brought up Episcopalian. It’s the pickleball to Catholicism’s tennis.
Growing up, not being Jewish, my contact with Manischewitz was through hearing my Jewish friends complain about it. These complaints did not tweak my ear much at the time. Our religious wine was terrible, too.
I assumed all wine was bad, like the communion wafer that represented Jesus’s body. Why he chose his body to be represented by a wispy Styrofoam tiddlywink was beyond me and still is. If that’s omnipresence, you can keep it.
I got interested in wine when I started to think about every bottle as a piece of art. I’m a painter, you see, and the only thing that could make my paintings worse is if they had to depend on the weather. But that’s what winemakers have to do. They ride that knife’s edge, deciding whether to pick or not pick like a man with an itchy nostril who can’t remember if his car windows are tinted.
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I was extremely proud of myself for making the above connection between wine and art (less so the picking metaphor). It’s just the kind of thing a cultured person would think. And that’s just the kind of person I want people to think I am.
I decided to chase that feeling. To learn more about wine I’d make a documentary about it. It would be a cultured COVID challenge to offset my other COVID challenge of trying to tear my pants in half through sheer force of body fat.
I often say about creative projects that you’ll be surprised who says, “Yes” and surprised who says, “No.” Paul Wagner, 25- year veteran of Napa Valley College, lecturer and educator, was one of those happier surprises. I was awed by his credentials. He’s brilliant but also gracious and easy to talk to.
The fact that he was accomplished and also kind made me boil with rage. Luckily, I had in my back pocket an extremely cultured observation that was sure to resonate. So, I said it to him. Bing. Bang. Boom. Wine. Art. Weather.
He hated it.
But he also said that since Manischewitz is made from Concord grapes, if I wanted to know what early American wine was like, I should taste it. Well, I did. Not because of the history, but because I want to be more like Paul Wagner.
I have to say, though the stuff is much maligned, if you take into account the recommendation of a learned man like Mr. Wagner and give it another try, you might find that you prefer the taste of an actual, literal, forest floor. I can’t much vouch for pickleball either.
Jim Hodgson is an Atlanta-based filmmaker. His documentary The Mostly Serious History of Wine is available for streaming now.
This article originally appeared in the April 2024 of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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Published: April 12, 2024
