Welcome to the wonderful world of wine. We’d only see it presented in its final, glorious bottled form – in actual reality, there’s a whole lot more happening before you make that first pour.

It was Jose Andres who said “Every time I open a bottle of wine, it is an amazing trip elsewhere”, and quite rightly so. Each wine, even from the very same vineyard, can give you a different taste for different times of harvest.

What is called the expression of wines is actually the interdisciplinary play of the various biotic (living) components of the vineyard coming together, from the other herbaceous plants interacting with the grape vines, along with the multitude of insects playing their respective role in imprinting their handiwork on the plants.

Then you have the masters of wine coming into play, with their knowledge of alchemy that changes the juice of the grape, along with the grape skin, into that glorious elixir that we all simply call ‘wine’.

Ernest Hemingway, touched by wine, proclaimed that ‘Wine and friends are a great blend’ and Eduardo Galeano said ‘We are all mortals until that first kiss and the second glass of wine’.

The man who wrote about treasure hunting, Robert Louis Stevenson captured its essence, saying ‘Wine is bottled poetry’.