Blessing the Harvest – Field Stone Winery
This time of year, along with gondolas trundling down the road and crushers running night and day, many of the wineries in the Napa Valley and Sonoma County – and probably every other wine grape growing region in California – are calling on the good services of local prelates to bless the harvest as the first load of the vintage arrives.
At Field Stone Winery in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, the annual celebration is one of the most important events of the year as far as its president, John Staten, is concerned. Unlike the ceremonies at many other wineries, Field Stone does not celebrate the first truckload of grapes to roll onto the crush pad, but greets the season with a few sips of a still-fermenting white wine from the new vintage. John’s role for the past dozen years, since he is an ordained minister as well as grape grower and winemaker, has been to lead the assembled in prayers of thanksgiving and read an appropriate passage from the Bible, completing the ceremony by raising a glass of the new wine in a salute to all those who had a hand in its creation.
Some years things don’t go exactly as planned. In 2001, John was stranded in Chicago, and missed the ceremony completely due to the unbelievably tragic events of September 11, and at least once, John was on hand but Mother Nature was playing games and the grapes not only weren’t fermenting, they weren’t even ripe. This year, though, for the lucky 13th occasion, everything went just as planned. This year also marked the beginning of the second quarter-century for the small winery which was founded in 1977 by the late Wallace Johnson, John Staten’s father-in-law and inventor of the upright grape harvester.
So, this harvest season John may have been a bit more fervent in his prayer of thanksgiving:
“May the blessings of God be upon these grapes, sweet, ripe fruits of promise. From earth to vine to bottle, may they symbolize the very best we can offer through the work of our hands, the artfulness of our minds, and the dedication of our hearts.” And to that we say, “Amen.”
Related posts:
- Fritz Winery – Cloverdale CA
- Mill Creek Winery – Reflections Meritage
- Armida Winery
- A Visit to Rios-Lovell Winery
- B. R. Cohn Winery, Glen Ellen