VineBuzz

At the Raymond Vineyards and Winery, a jewel in the crown of the Boisset Family Estates, the company practices its' core values every day as they work toward converting more of their vineyards toward biodynamics. Several months ago, I had the pleasure of a long afternoon chat with Jean-Charles Boisset, the president of the company. He made it clear that their commitment to making wine biodynamically is the strongest pillar in their philosophical structure and an unassailable strategic principle.

On September 28th, 2011, as part of their harvest celebration, they debuted "The Theater of Nature", an outdoor walk-though exhibit of many stations, explaining how this philosophy guides the planning, preparation, execution, ceremony, growth cycles, harvest, and inter-season land management of their winemaking enterprise. The elements in the debut could be seen as an outline for a visitor engagement program that will expand into a wider and deeper set of presentations, meetings, discussions, ceremonies, and other activities. I'm looking forward to seeing a roadmap emerge for program content which will educate, fascinate, entertain, and engage wine enthusiasts of many persuasions and origins. As I passed through each station, I began to see how the roadmap might begin.

The following introduction to The Garden of Lunar Influence (one of the many stations in The Theater of Nature) shows underlying components around which the deeper content can be built:

This is but the beginning of a long journey.