Didier as Bodhisattva

S

SFJoe

Joe Dougherty
Didier of CRB:

"At first I was only interested in wine-making, but today I consider it the least interesting part of my work.

The wine I make is the consequence of my work in the vines. I almost never taste in the cellar, because I know what the end result will be. When I first started, I took no interest in the vineyard. But my natural evolution has led me to spend less and less time in the cellar.

And this evolution continues in that today, I almost don't pay any attention to the vines and focus principally on what's happening in the soil. The vines are a direct consequence of what is happening in the soil.

None of this came as an overnight epiphany. It's been a slow and steady 30 years of evolution."

Not all are so wise.
 
Well, if you're willing to give up your cosmological reward in the interest of your (lesser) fellow critters, I'd say that's courageous.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Well, if you're willing to give up your cosmological reward in the interest of your (lesser) fellow critters, I'd say that's courageous.
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Not so sure you can separate the two.
 
I love the wines. But the progression of thought here will lead you to the painter-protagonist of the Recognitions, who, in his search for purity, ended up scraping the paint off of paintings as his form of art.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I love the wines. But the progression of thought here will lead you to the painter-protagonist of the Recognitions, who, in his search for purity, ended up scraping the paint off of paintings as his form of art.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be more analogous to making his own paints and canvas?

But in any event, whatever he's doing he's doing it right.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I love the wines. But the progression of thought here will lead you to the painter-protagonist of the Recognitions, who, in his search for purity, ended up scraping the paint off of paintings as his form of art.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be more analogous to making his own paints and canvas?

But in any event, whatever he's doing he's doing it right.
Click to expand...

The logic, which really, according to his interview, I readily admit, does not capture the complexity of his thought, in Joe's quote above is:

1) I used to be interested in winemaking but I recognized that all winemaking is in the vines.

2) I used to be interested in vines, but I recognized that everything about the vine that mattered is in the soil.

So now I'm only interested in the soil. If he can find an essence to the soil that is all that matters to the soil, he can then turn his interest to that.

The character in the Recognitions, having been a version of a forger, tried to get rid of all that could be forged. Eventually, he realized that all painting was forgeable appearance. To get to the essence of the painting, he had to scrape the paint away. He did it with slow and deliberate care.

That's the analogy I was thinking of.
 
originally posted by Cory Cartwright:
Like Eric has been saying, it's high time someone collects the complete thoughts of Didier for the larger winemaking community.
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I nominate Bowman. That way we won't have to wait forever for the translation.
 
All this has been a long time credo for people who inspired Didier and most of the growers that pay attention to soil as the alpha and omega of agriculture:

People like Miguel Altieri (UC Berkeley), Marc Bonfils and Bill Mollison.

Thanks to them.

BTW viticulture is years behind other agricultural specialties for this matter. And a lot of primitive agricultures are based on these considerations.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I love the wines. But the progression of thought here will lead you to the painter-protagonist of the Recognitions, who, in his search for purity, ended up scraping the paint off of paintings as his form of art.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be more analogous to making his own paints and canvas?

But in any event, whatever he's doing he's doing it right.
Click to expand...

The logic, which really, according to his interview, I readily admit, does not capture the complexity of his thought, in Joe's quote above is:

1) I used to be interested in winemaking but I recognized that all winemaking is in the vines.

2) I used to be interested in vines, but I recognized that everything about the vine that mattered is in the soil.

So now I'm only interested in the soil. If he can find an essence to the soil that is all that matters to the soil, he can then turn his interest to that.

The character in the Recognitions, having been a version of a forger, tried to get rid of all that could be forged. Eventually, he realized that all painting was forgeable appearance. To get to the essence of the painting, he had to scrape the paint away. He did it with slow and deliberate care.

That's the analogy I was thinking of.
Click to expand...

Ah, that makes sense then.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I love the wines. But the progression of thought here will lead you to the painter-protagonist of the Recognitions, who, in his search for purity, ended up scraping the paint off of paintings as his form of art.
Click to expand...
It sounds like Didier is already well down this path - if you're trying to show terroir above all else, then you really are trying to scrape all the extraneous stuff off so that you can be as transparent as possible in the winemaking. If the soil happens, the grapes happen, the wine happens.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I love the wines. But the progression of thought here will lead you to the painter-protagonist of the Recognitions, who, in his search for purity, ended up scraping the paint off of paintings as his form of art.
Click to expand...

i think mebbe painting is a bad analogy. it's all make-up.

think about a sculptor starting with a block of granite. the key is to only work on what is necessary, lest you end up with a big pile of new driveway.

i think that's what didier has in mind.

fb.
 
Maybe granite is not so apt. Let's take marble. An artist who loves to make marble statues begins to admire the rough hewn blocks inside which the sculptures lurk, unliberated, virginal, all unrealized potential. From that, he "progresses" to a love of the mountain from which the blocks are extracted, the brute hillside of veinless strata waiting to be severed from the mother lode. He still makes statues for the camera-clicking tourists at the Uffizi, but his real love is the mountain. DDA still makes ends (otherwise, how would he make ends meet?), but his passion has become the means.
 
There is nothing about the statement Joe quotes that sounds like Michelangelo claiming to get rid of the extraneous marble to get to the figure hidden there. Michelangelo didn't think he was scraping away appearance for essence. Didier, as quoted, is saying that the stuff you drink is the mere appearance produced by the vine, produced by the soil. If he could scrape away the soil he would. Again, the interview Jeff links to on another thread shows that he is not at all as simple in is thinking and this quotation does him an injustice. Taken as merely a statement about how he goes about thinking about what he is doing, it shows interesting ways of turning one's attention. Taken as a theory, I think it leads to looking for the true painting by scraping away the paint. Fatboy dismisses painting as all make-up. So is all art. When there's nothing but make-up, there's nothing to be made up and it's also all essence and no make-up. Or at least, it's not make-up you can scrape away to find the real unmade-up thing in itself.

The Michelangelo image, at least for Nietzsche, emits the cadaverous perfume of Schopenhauer.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
If he could scrape away the soil he would.
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That's where you lose him. The soil is the place is the point. Take proper care of the soil, and the vines are fine. Take proper care of the vines, and the wine is fine.

But the soil is the essence of the place, as I understand him.
 
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