"This Is What I Was Born to Do

The future Baron has finally acquired his much hoped-for vineyard job. It’s over the mountain and through the woods to a spot near a ski resort.

He is the dog’s body - does a little of everything, including sweeping up frequently. He gives wine-tastings and yesterday did his first tour of the winery, for which he got a tip. Very pleased, he was.

He’s also done some bottling of wines and will be taught to open and close for the owners this week.

There are lots of tourists on the weekends, so that’s mainly when he works, plus the odd weekday when there are catch-up chores to do.

Is he happy? Here is what he says on his blog about the Fourth of July:

Since they needed all hands on deck, they asked me if I could come in and fill in wherever there were gaps in personnel.

So I did, and I was immediately thrown into the maelstrom. I ran tastings almost nonstop from ten o’clock until about five or six, when the crowd began to taper off. There were two live bands, a man named Paul who was marketing pasta sauces with his own self-styled “pasta tastings” next to the tasting room, and an unending flow of wine from our shelves to the picnic tables outside.

During that time, there were no pauses to stop and think or to consider what I was doing—namely, living the dream. The dream of finding a place in this world where a man can think, “This is what I was born to do.” The dream of finding a place to stand alone. The dream of imagining yourself being in the same place when you’ve grown old—and being completely happy with that idea.

With so many choices available, it can be difficult to know what it is you’re called to do. He is fortunate to have listened and to have followed. A year to work before he plunges back into the academic world again…but this time, a focused attention to the domain of enology (oenology if you’re British): the study of wine.

Meanwhile he draws diagrams of his own vineyard-to-be. Every day his dream expands and changes.