Natural Wine, China, the Universe and Everything

It is customary to make a list of things one would like to do or which one would like to see in the year ahead (world peace and harmony etc). I will not be doing this, as all this would amount to would be a litany of 'voeux pieux' as the French say - pious wishes which will never come to pass, made only to give oneself a warm feeling and show others how caring one is. I would like to set out some things I might be glad to see or which may have special significance over the next year. Here are a few of them.

With a spot of good fortune the 'debate' on Natural Wine will calm down and surpass the for or against, disgusting or delicious level; proponents of biodynamic or organic production will be looked upon as rational beings who have made an important choice rather than silly romantics or much worse. One day all of this will be the norm, at least among reasonable people. Let us get on with it. After all, what makes wine interesting, both from an organoleptic and philosophical standpoint, is it's diversity and ability to move the human spirit, to sooth the savage breast.

It would be great if instead of subsidising the middle class obsession with 'solar panels' aka photovoltaics our government could spend money on raising the abysmal standard of this country's existing housing stock, allowing the poorest people to benefit from warm, dry, comfortable homes, low energy costs and all the other benefits bestowed by living in a pleasant environment. It is a much more efficient use of resources to invest in energy conservation than spending on producing more and more appliances to produce more and more energy at a very high subsidised cost.

I would like Kevin McCloud to be successful in bringing more of his well insulated luminous homes to market and that George Clark will bring more empty houses into use. George's campaign is especially efficient as the buildings already exist;  only limited resources are required to produce a great living environment unlike the dreaded lookalike new builds.

The (human) world will change utterly. I do not know whether a 'terrible beauty is born' but the 27th December 2011 headline (Le Figaro) that China and Japan will use the Yuan directly without converting to US Dollars seems to me to be particularly significant. It marks the end of European/American domination of the world.  News that the Chinese have established an organisation similar to NASA and plan exploration of the Moon and perhaps Mars, as well as a space station, spell the end of serious manned space exploration by the USA and Russia. In future we will all be passengers of the Chinese or privatised space tourism outfits. This could all be good news for the Earth system, as the Chinese are well aware of the destruction caused to the environment by our species (they have extremely direct experience of this) and intend to do something about it (eventually-after they have achieved crushing economic dominance first, as they seem destined to do).

It will soon be possible to observe the atmospheric signature of small earth-sized planets orbiting neighbouring stars and identify the presence of oxygen, that sign of life only found where precious photosynthesis takes place and where life has formed its world, such as here on Earth. Or perhaps we will never find such signs, no matter how hard we try, and come to realise how precious Gaia is and change our ways. Whatever happens, may we realise that we must protect life wherever we find it and rejoice in it whether on this planet or on some distant body.

There. I think that will do for now. I can think of lots more but will not bore you with them today.

Light and Water

I happened to catch the sun shining through a vine leaf (a bright green new leaf) and thought that this is the basis of all we are and ever will be. We should give thanks to those organisms billions of years ago who evolved photosynthesis in the first place and transformed the Earth into a place fit for life and who through their cooperation and evolution have given us all the living beauty around us today. They have also given us ourselves and for this too we should be thankful.

Light and water. Water is the other basic thing without which we would be as nothing.

Today it has rained for the first time in almost three months and how glad the plants are to see it. So am I, as this means I will not have to water my seedlings and young plants today. The best water comes from the sky of course. Irrigation is one of those wonderful human inventions which may provide spectacular results for a short time but which will end in salty tears.

Which brings me via this circuitous route to a recent talk given by Australian winemaker Ron Laughton at the Natural Wine Fair. Simply stated: if you have to irrigate then you are in the wrong place. Ron talked about biodynamics and sustainability in a very sensible, pragmatic and clear way using implacable logic.

If we wish to continue on this Earth we must take heed and work with natural resources, not simply take them. We will be surprised by the results as I was delighted by Ron's Jasper Hill wines. True Australian wine with a sense of place expressed elegantly and precisely.