The Spirit of Wine Books

The Spirit of Wine & The Spirit of Winemakers

The Spirit of Wine:

The Sprit of Wine
Sang in my glass, and I listened
With love to his oderous music,
His flushed and magnificent song.
‘I am health, I am heart, I am life!’
For I give for the asking
The fire of my father, the Sun
And the strength of my mother, the Earth.
Inspiration in essence, I am wisdom and wit to the wise,
His visible muse to the poet,
The soul of desire to the lover,
The genius of laughter to all.

William Ernest Henley, 1849-1903


Stephen R Lloyd-Moffett

Picture of Stephen Lloyd-Moffett

Dr. Stephen Lloyd-Moffett is an internationally known Religious Studies scholar and Professor of Religious Studies at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. A dynamic, popular community lecturer, he is the recipient the Cal Poly College of Liberal Arts teaching award, the President's Community Service Award, and was named one of the Top 20 Under 40 by the San Luis Obispo Tribune.  His first wine vintage was a half-ton of Cabernet in 2006 and has explored a dozen varietals since.  During a sabbatical in 2012, he assisted at Noon Winery in McLaren Vale in South Australia and eventually conducted 60 interviews with winemakers for these books.  He currently resides in the country outside of San Luis Obispo, surrounded by a small vineyard, farm, and garden.

Dr. Lloyd-Moffett is previously the author of Beauty for Ashes: The Spiritual Transformation of a Modern Greek Community (St. Vladimir’s Press, 2010) and numerous articles on monasticism, the early church, community living, and the spirituality of Cesar Chavez.  In his popular classes, Dr. Lloyd-Moffett explores the history and contemporary practice of religions around the globe.

Professor Lloyd-Moffett holds a B.A. in Economics and Film Studies from Claremont McKenna College.  After college, he received a Watson Fellowship to travel around the world by living in monasteries, seeking to understand the happiness of monks.  He then went to work for The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm that took him around the world consulting within such fields as the economics of satellites, the music industry, governmental policies, and the dairy industry.  For a year, he journeyed from Canada to Tierra del Feugo in Argentina in an old Toyota Landcruiser.  Returning to the states, he entered and eventually gained  an M.A. in Religious Studies from University of California, Santa Barbara and simultaneously a Master of Theology from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York.  He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to Greece in 2002 and earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a focus on early Christianity and early Hinduism. He has been teaching at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo since 2005.