POETRY AND WINE

There’s books and food, books and wine. Books and fashion, and feeding yourself, and nourishing your soul. It can be helpful to consider reading as the intake of knowledge and ideas, in the same way that eating is the intake of nutrients (or not). But applying this same model to fashion has gotten us into trouble in the past; consumerism devaluing the very thing we’re trying to absorb. André Leon Talley said it best when he warned of a "famine of beauty." Fashion has a lot to learn from the food world about how to eat.

In reading the winemaker Anders Frederik Steen’s “Poetry Is Growing in Our Garden,” a record of his growing and tasting notes from 2013 to 2020 released by Apartamento Publishing this year, I landed upon an entry that took me to my closet.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Obermorschwihr, France

Postscript: the Gewürztraminer had a problem with its yeast. It was rotten somehow, turning black and smelling very bad. I decided to remove the bad yeast from the Gewürztraminer and throw it out. I took the good yeast from the Pinot Gris and split it in two; one part went back into the Pinot Gris and the other went into the Gewürztraminer. Jean-Marc told me about a technique that can work well in cases like this, where you dynamise the wine and return some energy. I took off my clothes and jumped into the cold wine, in tanks in the cellar. I jumped into the Pinot Gris first, moved around for a minute or so, then crawled into the other tank of Gewürztraminer, the troubled one. I moved around the tank again for a minute or two; the important thing is to only think good thoughts, which I did. I hope it'll work and restart the fermentation in both wines.

The drama! The sensuality! Of course I love the idea of a man swimming nude in tonight’s corkage, but aside from that I’m compelled by this concept of “dynamising” and “returning energy.” If a bad wine can be dynamised by a naked body, a stiff outfit or limp wardrobe can be zhuzhed by other eccentric, organic, animalistic instincts. It’s really advice for living, but a lot of living I do centers around clothes.

When I messaged Steen about this quote (grateful for the connective power of Instagram), he wrote to me: “Rereading this, I feel like a crazy man… Wines are sensitive and sensible, I risk to sound crazy (again) but the way you relate to them both physically and spiritually is very important. The wines feel it!”

Clothes, too, have feelings, and they need to be nurtured and loved, but also entertained and encouraged. That’s why the idea of outfit formulas or, especially in current fashion culture, the rigidity of “aesthetics” is anathema to a well-rounded fashion diet. And when clothes are bought with temporary timelines in mind, they know they’re just empty calories.

A great winemaker never follows an exact recipe, and neither do the most inspiring dressers. Whether it means taking your clothes off to achieve results or putting them on, it’s important to consider dynamics, diet, and to only think good thoughts.

Written by Laura Reilly