BOWBlog Page
Here at BOW, we sometimes like to write about what we're up to. This Blog page is our chance to report from the front line of wine making and we hope you like our silly little thoughts!
The Golden Empress
Posted on: 17th September, 2009
I experience such a joy and completeness watching my wife work. There is a grace and strength to her that gives me awe. Her efforts are never with complaint and the work ends when it is done, not when she is done. In all fairness, Sharon is a much harder worker than I.
This is good. Now is the harvest and it is her time. She leads by example and by her fierce determination to treat the grape right. Although new to this endeavor, she knows the simple yet hard lessons of life. Prevention now will instill the quality later. Exactitude now will create the quality later.
When we met, Sharon was already much more mature than I -and I had almost nine years on her. She understood the connections between life and integrity and commitment and work. I'd explored these but was still a bit fuzzy on the middle part. Yet she rarely pointed out my many shortcomings. She once used a flaw to save our relationship. I was trying to overcompensate for coming to Washington DC late at the age of 33. I was overselling myself to many as I tried to find opportunities exceeding my experience. She said: "you don't have to be such a used car salesman". Stopped me in my tracks. I promised her then and there I would never be that way with her again.
I have bent my promise many times over the intervening years but she loves me yet in her quiet and strong way. And I learn so much from he, and I am grateful.
O Love Dear Love - My dream star at night,
A flourishing garden in mine skies!
What spell in thou name has taken me into thy world?
What magical potion bestowed upon, to unfurl my emotions?
With thy alluring beauty, my heart you've won.
With thy smile, those sweetest smiles, I see upon thy face,
'Caught my heart to love you my grace...
Everything about thee I adore my love.
Mine heart never stops yearning wishing to have;
Those smooth silky blonde hair that the breeze kiss,
Those thin red brims that the wine taste on your lips.
-excerpted from The Golden Empress
by Catrina Heart
This is the magic time, the harvest time, and we are all working more. Sharon works the most. Six and seven days; ten to fifteen hours a day. Last night thirteen hours till about 9pm. I am the boss and I crack the whip; collect the money, pay the bills. She is the muse; surrounded by friends and volunteers who labor willingly for hours helping her to crush and to sort and to clean. Rick is at her side, together they are making magic in the cellar. (Occasionally I am trusted to run the mop and the bucket.) The harvest and the crush is our dream made real. We make wine so that others my drink and find the pleasure of our lives in each drop. And each night I raise my glass to my lovely wife.
So Sharon and I want just a few things. We want our wine to sing. We want our staff to be happy and supported in their professional lives. We want you and your guests to have a completely pleasant, unique, and fulfilling experience. We want our lives together to be happy and full and fulfilling. We want to be exhausted when we curl up with the dogs at the end of the day and excited when we wake to our own internal alarm clocks. We want to work the soil and get earth on our hands and in our souls and juice in our hearts. But mostly we want to be a part of the very special community that comes together at BOW. We hope to see you soon.
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- One Journey at a Time. My brother Ben and his wife Kathy travelled around the country this summer with their two kids, Genevieve and Sebastian. Kathy wrote a storyu of the trip and she has posted her photos and story of their visit to us. Enjoy!
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- Read about our green building in the Piedmont Virginian.
- Read about BOW in the Wall Street Journal Online!
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