Last night, at Kancellaria, the talk turned to fascism in the USA. While, here in Georgia, with its creep towards Moscow, there’s more hope and possibility than what awaits back at home. I sipped on Krakhuna and knew I would be having nightmares. Yet still, I grasp onto the small things—(or what seems small) get me through, whether subversive or not: Poetry. Arts. Kindness. Wine. As Philip Roth’s character Seymour Levov said in his American Pastoral, “You put too much stock in human intelligence, it doesn't annihilate human nature.”
And all of these thoughts sit heavy in sweltering Tbilisi, where in the dark night, a handful of protesters stood, as always, in front of the state house—not the same crowds as back in December, but they are there. Still.
Here where the wine is getting even more complex and energetic. And people here still believe that everything worth it is possible. Walking prophets. That is what I thought when I first landed in Georgia in 2011. I still think so.
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From the recent a Gallup poll about a big drop in drinking put the industry in a snit. Me? In the greater scheme of things, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. It's not an issue. It's fine that people are drinking less. And as fare as wine is concerned? There wasn’t enough of the good stuff to go around. So, perhaps, drinking levels are going where they need to be.
More next week, but in the meantime, here’s some wine recommendations for you, some expensive. Some not. And they all can give you a little bit of hope, if you sip, think, and remember a land where it all possible.
More soon.
Alice