AUTUMN HARVEST

A wine estate invited me to write a promotional piece for their website. I suggested a descriptive, ‘soft sell’ approach: a textured, sensory, first person impression from a visitor’s perspective. I opted to write in the present tense, so as to immerse the reader in the experience of the place.

A fine, soft rain is falling when I visit the XXXXXXX Wine Farm. It draws a curtain across the landscape, dimming the distant clunk and roar of traffic. Painting a grey-white backdrop on which other sounds emerge – the red twittering of starlings, pale blue daubs of a turtle dove’s call, the old gold dashes of sparrow song – more alive, striking, vivid than on brighter days.

Couples are gathered around small tables on the patio, drinking coffee, sipping wine, musing over the extensive menu. A group of children plays on the lawn under the 300 year old oak trees. A break from school, and social media, and the walled confines of suburban streets.

Crossing the footbridge that spans the dark rush of the XXXXXXX River, I gaze out over the vineyards that blanket the hillsides in the amber hues of autumn. Harvest is over, and the grapes that yield the fruity, full-bodied wines for which the estate is renowned, have been gathered in. Later, sitting in an over-stuffed armchair before the open hearth in the cosy old wine cellar, it is these deep colours I taste while savouring a 2003 merlot.

Herein lies the value of making an excursion to a place like this, where gracious architecture, abundant gardens, and a sense of wide space allow us to unwind; where the rich smell of damp earth awakens our imaginations.