COVID contemplation

Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty kind of person? I suspect the ideal time to find the answer to this question is during a global pandemic.

It’s hard to be optimistic when the powers-that-be tell you to shut your cellar door down and stop doing what you love to do – welcoming visitors to our lovely vineyard, letting people taste the fruits of our labour, chatting about the wines and, yes, actually selling some. After the great strides we have made over the last six years all of a sudden, we are treading water.

But then again, there has been time to think. And we’ve actually had the time to re-do our website and plan for our long-delayed wine club. There has also been the opportunity to conduct some vertical tastings of our wines, just to see how they have developed in the bottle. Our pinot noirs have been a revelation, developing slowly and well. If you have some of our 2014 Estate Pinot Noir in your cellar pull it out and put it on the dinner table tonight.

Such simple pleasures have escaped one of our daughters and her husband who experienced full- blown COVID-19 in New York. Her account of the illness sent shivers up the spine, but with youth and healthy lifestyles on their side both have come through okay.

One daughter too far away; the other close at hand. With the COVID lockdown in prospect we invited our other daughter, her partner, their toddler and their dog to see out the pandemic at Colmar Estate. Our quiet and ordered household suddenly became a riotous assembly! But with all the hustle and bustle came that wonderful feeling of having the family, gathered together around the dinner table, safe and well. And yes, we opened a few nice wines. My glass is half full.