IS WINE ART? AN EXPLORATION IN AESTHETICS
I came to wine last. First, there was dance, classical ballet mostly, but other styles as well. Formal dance training was also formal music training: classical music, jazz, Broadway musicals. Adolescence led me through the annals of rock and roll and my heart still belongs to those iconic musicians of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. I was a dance major in college and supplemented my education by studying acting, painting, music, philosophy, and astronomy. I fell in love with the Impressionists while traveling the globe. Once I was out in the real world, I never veered far from an artistic life, but in supporting roles rather than on-stage performances. I found myself transitioning into the fascinating wine world and embraced the pursuit of wine education and certification collection with tremendous vigor. Philosophical ponderings crept in too until finally; I went back to the ivory tower to immerse myself in learning the humanities focusing on philosophy and cultural studies. I discovered that my lifelong questions about art had a discipline called aesthetic philosophy. I realized an enduring fascination with its tenuous criteria. There is something about just knowing art at a glance, or hearing discordant music and realizing that it isn’t quite melodious. What is an aesthetic musical score, dance performance, or work of art? Why does one painting achieve greatness when another may not? What…
