Presenter: Wes Hagen, Winemaker/Ambassador J.Wilkes Wines: … · 2019. 5. 14. · It can be argued that beer encouraged the invention of: irrigation, mathematics, the wheel, writing,

Presenter: Wes Hagen, Winemaker/Ambassador J.Wilkes Wines: @jwilkeswines @weshagen

[email protected] 805-450-2324

"Fermented beverages have been preferred over water throughout the ages: they are safer, provide psychotropic effects, and are more nutritious. Some have even said alcohol was the primary agent for the development of Western civilization, since more healthy individuals (even if inebriated much of the time) lived longer and had greater reproductive success. "

Dr. Patrick McGovern, The Origin & Ancient History of Wine

!  Eases social tensions

! Cements reciprocal relationships within a culture: social, celebratory, economic and sexual.

! Acts as social lubrication at gatherings and in daily life.

!  Leads to shamanistic rituals and can be argued to have led to spirituality/religion.

!  Yeast: Humanity’s oldest industrial microorganism.

! Alcohol and How To Catch a Buzz without Dying.

! Beer! We wouldn’t be human without it.

! Vitis Vinifera: From Caucuses through Europe via Romans, Gauls, Birds.

! Wine is poetically responsible for all modern medical, microbiological, and cosmological science. No, really!

!  Alcohol (ethanol) is produced by yeast to protect their food source (oozing, ripe fruit) from other hungry critters vis a vis a toxic byproduct of glycolysis/fermentation

!  Evolution favored the critters who could better tolerate/metabolize ethanol, as it gave them access to the ripest fruit and the economic/nutritional and euphoric dividend that it provides.

!  Almost all humans (some Asian cultures carry ADH1B and ADH1C enzyme variants) produce ALDH-One enzymes for breaking down ethanol into energy. (Alcohol Dehydrogenease)

!  10% Rule…

!  Malay Pen-tailed Shrew, from Wikipedia

!  Pen-tailed treeshrews are the only known mammals that consume alcohol every night, other than humans.

!  According to a study of treeshrews in Malaysia, they spend several hours per night consuming the equivalent of 10 to 12 glasses of wine with an alcohol content up to 3.8% drinking naturally fermented nectar of the bertam palm.

!  This nectar contains one of the highest alcohol concentrations of all natural foods. Pen-tailed treeshrews frequently consume large amounts of this nectar while showing no signs of intoxication. 

!  Homo sapiens have been around about 100,000 years. For 90,000 of those years we didn’t do much. Then we invented beer in about 9,000 BCE and everything changed.

!  It can be argued that beer encouraged the invention of: irrigation, mathematics, the wheel, writing, the pyramids, factories, refrigeration, and the end of child labor in the US.

!  Agriculture and the plow were invented to increase beer production in ancient Mesopotamia.

!  The first human writing, use of numbers and mathematics was used to catalog beer recipes, laws, supplies and beermaking supplies in granaries.

!  Egyptians/Nubians brewed ‘medicinal beers’ with tetracycline thousands of years before modern science ‘discovered’ it.

!  200 million BCE: Vitis Ampelopsis evolves into American and Eurasian Subspecies.

!  Eurasian winegrape, vitis vinifera sylvestris dies in Ice Ages, and manages to survive in isolated pockets, usually near water.

!  Last Ice Age leaves v.v.sylvestris isolated between the Black and Caspian Seas.

! Domestication occurs in this area in the late Neolithic/ Chalcolithic , leading to a ‘perfected’ grapevine, v.v.vinifera.

! Canaanites/Phoenicians.

! Greeks (Plato, Democritus, Aristophanes)

!  The Symposion

!  Romans: Cato, Julius Caesar, Caligula and Mount Falernus.

! Gauls (Barrels) and Carthaginians (Spain)

!  Post Roman Empire wine culture

! New World Thievery

!  It can be argued all modern literacy and science can be poetically connected to wine.

!  Johannes Gutenberg (1439)

! Middleburg, Netherlands (15th and 16th C)

! Antoine de Leeuwenhoek(1632–1724)

!  Johann Lippershey (1608) Galileo Galilei (1609)

!  Louis Pasteur (1858)

!  Jean-Louis Vignes: 1830, first vinifera from France to Los Angeles. Haraszthy (1861)

!  1840’s Anaheim Disease and the Gold Rush

!  Legitimizing New World Wine with a French accent.

!  Buena Vista Winery was founded in 1857 by Agoston Haraszthy in Sonoma County.

! Chinese immigrants build cellars and caves.

! Why Not Just Drink It? ! Hedonistic Model (First Empty Bottle is

the Best Wine) ! Evaluation Model (Wine Geeks and

Professionals) ! Does knowing wine increase or decrease

enjoyment? ! Are we losing sales by complicating wine

too much?

!  Red wine is the most healthful beverage on the planet when consumed responsibly.

!  No other beverage has been shown in multiple health studies to extend the average human lifespan by 5-7 years. Moderate wine drinkers are more educated, happier, less stressed, have more sex (and kids!).

!  A bottle of wine keeps friends and families at the table for an extra hour a day. A very meaningful ‘analog ritual’

!  Wine (sparkling, rose, white, red, dessert) has all 4 flavor categories and is the greatest beverage on the planet for matching with food.

! Wine has sweetness (alcohol, RS), tartness (acid), astringency (tannin), saltiness (organic salts) and richness/umami (tannin, alcohol, sweetness).

! Match intensity of food to intensity of wine. ! Match structure to fat. Examples: !  Bridge flavors in the wine to the food. !  Take a chance and have fun. ! Highly spicy? Best bet is beer! !  Examples for J.Wilkes: Pinot Blanc,

Chardonnay, Pinot Noir

! Have we domesticated the vine or has the vine domesticated us?

!  Fermentation is a evolutionary miracle that brings together vine, mildew/rot, yeast and animals for one purpose.

! Nature WANTS us to consume fermented beverages.

!  Finally, wine reminds us what nature believes is important: taking time to relax, enjoy beauty, laugh and talk with those we love, and ultimately to reproduce.

! Hope you enjoyed! !  I’m available for seminars, weddings and

bar-mitzvahs ! Don’t forget to LIKE J.Wilkes on

Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and tell everyone you know to do the same!

! [email protected]

!  Stay in touch!

! Business Cards by request

!  Follow me for more fun: @weshagen @jwilkeswines

! Distribution in CA: American/Southern

! Retail: $18-30

! Wholesale: $10-$15 on-premise