The Spirit of Wine
Finding Religion in the Fruit of the Vine

The Spirit of Wine invites readers to discover how the fruit of the vine can deepen one’s spiritual life. Internationally acclaimed professor of comparative world religions Dr. Stephen Lloyd-Moffett reveals how a life filled with wine can act as a surrogate for traditional religions and spiritual communities. Whether you are a novice in the Church of Wine or already a devotee, this book will deepen your appreciation for wine by exploring the rich history of oenological conversions, mystical wine experiences, and ancient wine rituals. The book concludes with practical tips, including the secret to creating vibrant wine communities and the virtue of monastically-inspired spiritual drunkenness. Finally, a book that pairs perfectly with a glass of wine.

Click here to Purchase a Copy through Amazon

From the Introduction:

It is Sunday and cars file into the parking lot filled with nicely-dressed believers congregating for their regular gathering. They are greeted by a welcoming committee as officiates scramble behind the scenes to put together the final touches of the event. The bread and the wine are already arranged precisely on the table; background music sets the mood; everyone is smiling. The members come hoping to step out of their daily lives, learn something, and perhaps, find inspiration. They share a common belief in the veracity and worthiness of their cause. They come, also, to see old friends and perhaps make new ones. The building they file into, however, is not a church, but a winery. These are wine club members who have arrived to pick up their quarterly shipment. They are not traditionally religious, or perhaps they are.

This book is about those wine drinkers who are not just passionate about wine, but have a kind of religious devotion to it. If you picked up this book, it is likely that you are one of them or you at least suspect that your family members might think you are. For you, wine has, in the words of the legendary wine writer Jancis Robinson, taken “hold of a person” and sunk “its claws pretty deep.” You are the wine devotees and your altar might just be wine itself. This book is here to explain the curious part of your soul that finds fulfillment at the bottom of a glass.

If you are not sure if you are a wine devotee, consider the follow quiz:

ð Do you join multiple wine clubs or mailing lists, sometimes even contemplating offering everything short of your first child to get on the waiting list of wines you freely admit are cults?

ð Have your vacations begun to look like wine pilgrimages, with Burgundy or Bordeaux acting as your Mecca?

ð Are the folks in your tasting group some of your most meaningful relationships?

ð Does your idea of a juicy scandal involve oak extract and powdered tannin?

ð Do you find your blood involuntarily boil when you see someone put ice cubes in chardonnay, drink pinot from a puny glass, or mispronounce mourvèdre?

ð Is your cellar the clearest sign that you must believe in an afterlife because no one could possibly empty such a cellar in a single lifetime?

If you checked a majority of the boxes above, then you just might be a wine devotee.

Perhaps you identify with the old German poet Johann Wolfgang van Goethe who responded to a question regarding which three things he would take to a deserted island if he knew he was going to be marooned there. He reportedly stated: "Poetry, a beautiful woman and enough bottles of the world's finest wines to survive this dry period!" He was then asked if he could only bring two things, which of the three would he give up? He succinctly replied: "The poetry!" The questioner was slightly surprised and pressed Goethe further: and if you could have only one thing with you, which would it be. And Goethe thought for a couple of minutes and was said to answer: "It depends on the vintage!"

If you suspect you identify with Goethe, you are not alone. Tens of thousands of people around the world would have a harder time imagining a life without wine than they would a functional Congress. Having known many of these wine devotees and have inclinations in that direction myself, I have even come to feel sorry for the spouses of wine devotees, especially the wife of the self-styled “Prince of Pinot,” who once declared: "My wife says I am busy with pinot noir every waking moment. Not true, I also dream about it.”

The point is that for devotees like us, wine captures our heart, mind, and soul completely. We are not just living but “living the wine life,” as the author of a “wine devotional” states it. Yes, there actually are wine devotionals for those who have caught the bug. One devotional even reminds wine devotes to “set aside time and find a quiet place that is yours alone” each morning in order to “sip this book” as you journal your experiences of the “spirit” of wine leading you to veritas, Truth. If part of you suspects that deep truths lie hidden in opaque greenish bottles, you are on the path of finding spirituality in the fruit of the vine.

You are probably saying to yourself right now that you’ve never considered yourself religious or even spiritual, at least not toward wine. It is true, there is no recognized First Dionysian Church of Chardonnay, no Winemaker’s Creed, and no one is dunked in a wine vat to be baptized, as appealing as that might sound to some of us if it were pinot. The argument of this book is that if you set aside the list of “official” religions in your mind and what you think should constitutes all the elements of a spiritual life, then you might see that wine sometime plays a similar role to other, more traditional objects of devotion such as God or the Dao. Perhaps you have had a spiritual relationship to wine all along, but you simply haven’t seen it through that lens before. This book hopes to open your eyes to a potentially positive spiritual outlet by making you aware of the spiritual life you are already living. It is about making you see your relationship to wine in a new way.

As such, this book is not like other wine books: it is not a wine buying guide, a travel narrative through wine country, a primer on tasting, a textbook on wine marketing, or a technical book on winemaking. It is also not a reflection on the philosophical questions raised by wine, which has become a curiously popular genre as of late. It is not even a history of wine’s relationship to religion, though it will draw upon history from time to time. It is about revealing the meaning of wine for people like us and the manifold ways in which wine can act as a replacement or surrogate for the human impulses traditionally fulfilled by organized religions. As such, it focuses on the non-physical elements of wine—the soul of wine, if you will. It ponders what occurs when people begin to see the fruit of the vine as something sacred. The ancient world recognized it as the cult of the god Dionysius. Today, we may have all officially become wine atheists, but this book suggests that perhaps we’ve changed less than most people assume. It is time to found a new religion of wine.

A Taste of What is to Come

Our journey into the religious world of wine devotion has two parts. The first section is devoted to the universal fraternity of wine believers and their journey to becoming wine devotees. It provides insights into the purpose of wine rituals, wine dogmas, and the sacred world of wine. It ends with an exploration of the epitome of the wine devotees, the Pinotphiles. The second part of the books walks you through five steps in making wine spiritual in your life. Each chapter in Part II ends with some practical tips for integrating the insights of that step into your life.

Throughout the book, I will not take a stand on the most sacred of all grapes (though it is obviously pinot noir) or the most absurd forms of wine devotion (again, obviously pinot noir). I should also warn you that throughout this book, I will often glide seamlessly between talking about wine and talking about spirituality—so seamlessly, in fact, that it may be difficult to tell which one I am addressing. This style is on purpose. The facility and ease in which one can travel partially proves my point: it is sometimes mighty challenging to differentiate the two. The life of wine sometimes looks suspiciously like the religious life (and the religious life sometimes looks like the life of wine). My suggestion if you experience anxiety whether a statement is about wine or religion is to take another sip (for this book pairs well with wine) and wait to the end of the paragraph—it should be clear by then. If not, have another sip.

The Spirit of Wine Books

The Spirit of WineFinding Religion in the Fruit of the Vine

Click here to Purchase a Copy through Amazon

Table of Contents

Click here to Purchase a Copy through Amazon

From the Introduction:

A Taste of What is to Come

The Spirit of Wine
Finding Religion in the Fruit of the Vine