Véraison as metaphor

I once wrote, back at the beginning of my career in wine, that I felt like I was at véraison*. My classmates and I had been through an intensive four-month full-time education, and we’d grown and changed. But even as we celebrated our graduation, we weren’t yet ‘ripe’. And I thought that our forthcoming wine careers would be what would ‘ripen’ us.

 

But as I sat at lunch yesterday with one of my teachers from that time - a great mentor and friend - I realized the shortcomings of my véraison metaphor. For one thing, 22 years later, I’m still not ‘ripe’! Because that implies an end, and by no means am I there.

 

In my life, véraison is endless - with continual ‘colour change’ as I reinvent myself, over and over. Before my life in wine, I’d had several reinventions and since, I’ve had a few more. Start ups, marketing, retailing, hospitality, wine events, consulting, social media, and then some.

 

But one career change I didn’t anticipate is probably the one I’m most grateful for. Despite an early love of photography, and a (slightly) later love of wine, I could not have imagined how I would eventually bring my affinity for wine and images together as integral elements of my career.

 

So I’m definitely sitting at véraison again (or still) as photography becomes a larger part of my ‘work’. Somehow it seems fitting that I’m writing this as I sit in a vineyard waiting for the sun to go down a bit so I can take some more véraison shots! 

 

(And to belabour the metaphor just a bit further, I do hope there are a couple of elements of ‘ripening’ that ARE underway within me - I hope my acids are falling and my sweetness is increasing! LOL)

 

* For more on véraison, including a definition, click here.