Our Beginnings
Some background to the Doug Reichel Wine Marketing Inc.
Growing up in a typical prairie village was a privilege. At the closing ceremonies of Saskatchewan Centennial Homecoming in that village I had the privilege of highlighting some of those privileges as I reflected on growing up in that setting- if you’re interested the text of my address on that ocassion is found here.
Wine and social change
My early experience growing up in small town Saskatchewan was one of complete abstinence from alcohol because it offered no apparent benefits that I could see. One of the features of growing up in the Prairies was (and still is in many areas) a drink-up weekend activity for a number of people - usually the beer, hard liquor and the “Kool-Aid-with-buzz” variety of drinks. Headaches, smashed cars and endless stories of drink related escapades were common. On the extreme side, news of three students my age from a neighbouring town dieing in a messy drink-related car accident, two teenagers from a different near-by town dieing in another drink-related accident helped clinch my determination not to drink. Probably a good thing in that context.
It wasn’t until I completed my undergraduate degree in theology and then lived in South Africa for 8 years that I began to hang out with people who used alcohol - some beer, but mostly wine - in very life and friendship affirming ways: with friends, food and often in the context of some minor and major celebrations. Then when my wife and I returned with our young family to Vancouver, Canada for graduate studies, we were part of a study environment and church where this pattern alcohol-use was replicated: friends, food and good wine. Ditto when, after my studies, we moved to New Zealand for two years: friends, food and wine. Celebration, taste-sensory alertness and delight in the small and large blessings of life (do not read that as middle-upper class financial security) were our expanding experience around wine.
It was in conversation with a one-time lawyer and New Zealand friend we got chatting about the similarities between our countries and he made an interesting observation: Like Canada, New Zealand and Australia were very much pioneering cultures for much of the past 150 years and all had hard drinking backgrounds - perhaps something instinctively done to escape or socialize in an environment of limited entertainment options. He then went on to note that where wine had begun to become the drink of preference, social attitudes and norms began to change quite dramatically - as in New Zealand where grape growing and wine consumption has rapidly become part of the new cultural fabric in the last 20 years. Gender inclusiveness, alcohol related violence, the tone and tenure of social gatherings and parties, restaurant culinary excellence were all positively affected by more pervasive wine consumption. It is interesting to note that my home province of Saskatchewan has per capita the highest alcoholism and lowest wine consumption in Canada.
Wine and raising our children
In my studies I found it instructive that Jesus Christ’s public work was book-ended by wine: at the request of his mother he replenished wine at a wedding where the supplies were running low thus commencing his ministry among people, and then the serving of wine and bread to a small group of his followers as an important sign of the culminating of his work on the night he was betrayed and later killed. Perhaps one of the most hope-filled parts of the Bible speaks of wine served in a feast prepared by God for the all the oppressed and poverty wracked.
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine
-the best of food and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.
In a sense, Catherine and I came to appreciate wine in the finest, most wholesome way for neither of us had any alcoholic baggage. As a couple, we wanted our three very alert children to observe the use of alcohol and the world of wine in our home in ways that would model life and celebration, not escape or paranoia. We wanted them to observe a pattern of positive alcohol consumption that I think is implied throughout the Bible where wine is usually enjoyed with others in the context of shared life and celebration. What could be a better deterrent to the binge, loneliness-numbing excessiveness of so much teenage drinking? So we resolved early in our wine explorations that we would never open a bottle of wine or drink when there was tension in the home. Given the crap that comes with being human, I promise you that this resolve was tested often. But all these years later we’re continuing to enjoy wine and food and friends and we’re seeing our children pay attention to aromas and flavours in wine, food and wine matches, and generally witness good things happening around that bottle of wine at the evening meal table.
Farmers and Artists
I guess it was only natural that I should want to start a company around the idea of wine - good wine. And it’s my prairie roots that have really helped me appreciate something of the agricultural rootedness of this business. Growing up in rural areas means that you learn an attentiveness to the land, the soil and how the seasons affect that land. You can do a lot with modern farming practises, but arrogance is necessarily kept at bay because you finally are at the mercy of the weather. Good wine is about the juxtaposition of farming and art. Javier de Paredes of Torreon de Paredes Winery in Chile says it well, Winemaking is about four things: the climate, the soil, the grapes and people. We are only farmers. We can only make good wine if we have good grapes and proper growing conditions. See CJ Katzs interview with Javier, Values Reign in an Age of McWine, and my conversation with Kurt Ammann.
What are your thoughts on wine and food and friends and society and raising children and farming? Please write us at info@finewinesmanitoba.com. These are some of mine. Enjoy our wines.
Doug Reichel
Doug Reichel Wine Marketing Inc.
www.FineWinesManitoba.com