The Wine Artist. Finally!
I am an artist. Don’t laugh. I am.
I am rediscovering this on July 1, 2026. Perhaps 6 years after I wrote the original words, during the tail-end of our covid-confinement lives. It has taken me all this time to confidently create a website that honours this idea of me, comfortably saying: I am a wine artist.
“Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artefacts (artworks), expressing the author's imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power” (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
I am an artist.
Don’t laugh. I am.
I have never felt such a liberating sensation than the moment when this revelation popped into my brain after a long day of struggle. Mental and emotional struggle.
More than an “out of the blue revelation”, it was like finally! My brain managed to join all the freaking dots that have been there since I remember.
I am a slow thinker. I give you that.
I had three conversations with three people in three countries the day before. Conversations about my company, my beliefs, my services, the way I see wine, my journey, but above all, conversations about how to move forward. What to do next?
As a solopreneur, with only me making decisions, this is one is one of the biggest questions I face every day and the main source of my uncertainty. Where to focus? Where to concentrate my efforts? What to do, so I feel a sense of moving forward somehow?
The three conversations left me troubled. They left me worried. Left me with more questions than answers. I felt like I needed to start all over again. Rethink strategies, ideas, services, communications, website. Shit!
Another mountain to climb, but without the energy this time, without the same willingness I had when I started 3 years ago.
I wanted to cry. I did actually, but no one saw me.
Of course, that night, I couldn’t sleep well.
Again.
I was not in dreamland. I was in worryland. As it often happens when the rollercoaster of the day's emotions catch up with you at the wrong moment of the day, when you desperately need to sleep.
One of the people I talked to the previous day lives in Chicago. She’d done a profile interview about me. I did not ask for it. She did it of her own accord. Following her own drive. When talking to her the previous week, I didn’t know my story, comments or experiences about life were being “heard, appreciated and (most surprisingly) recorded”.
Somehow, when I was fighting my pillow for the thousandth time, trying to avoid waking up my wife (because we wake up each other these days) I recalled the things that Tania (I will call her my artistic-coming-out-angel from now on) wrote about me. You can read it here
Suddenly the lightning bolt of certainty struck me.
What if I am an artist? What if... I do tell people my creative side is stronger than any of my other professional sides?
Wouldn’t that make my life easier in terms of explaining why on earth I see emotions in wine, why on earth I want to create experiences, find connections, use wine as a metaphor for life?
Wouldn't it make more sense to assume the weirdo inside me is actually the creative, imaginative, artistic type rather than the traditional wine guy?
I cherish the thought of pushing people “comfortably” out of their comfort zones. Allowing them to see a familiar product—wine—in an unfamiliar way.
Wouldn't it be nice? To finally stop twisting my services to conform to the traditional wine industry guy, who teaches about wine, or sells it, or does tastings, or provides advice about the “best wine to buy, at the best price”.
When I started this venture I thought I was embarking on a journey to create a business, but rather than the business side, the journey has punched more in the gut.
It has been transformative.
I’ve been forced to figure out who I am (the unapologetically me) and what I want (and need) to express to the world.
Of course, I do not have all the answers. let alone any certainty that I am stepping onto solid ground. But somehow. I feel I am closer.
For starters, wouldn’t I have better chances of finding the right audience for my services, by just being “upfront”.
–Hey, ehh..mmmm “...I am sorry guys, I am not much of a help...unless you are open to explore and discover other aspects besides just drinking wine...are you with me?–
Potential customers are not to be blamed for being confused. You will always try to make sense of something new that is in front of you, by projecting old thoughts or previously learned ideas into it.
It’s natural. It’s part of our “Homo sapiens” instinct to face new things (or dangers).
We are programmed to see “value” by comparing the “new” with existing things around us.
A wine salesman, a wine teacher, a tour operator, but it seems I do not fit any of those categories around me.
I’ve toyed with this feeling of having a strong artistic side during much of my life but never quite embraced it, fully.
Until now, thanks to Tania.
Clang! The penny dropped.
Tuck! The bottle of ink fell, leaving a large stain on the paper.
Splash! the yellow paint erupted from the acrylic tube and hit the canvas angrily.
All at once.
The signs have been there since I started writing to blow off the steam of my adolescent self, and accentuated throughout my life with that sense of adrenaline kick after having created or crafted “anything” new.
A “white canvas” has always been metaphorically alluring to me, the unlimited potential of the imagination, the serendipity of creativity. What a feeling, my friends.
So here I am. Telling you I am an artist, that I feel like an artist.
I am a wine artist.
Wine is my tool to convey emotions and seek connections with you.
Connections that go beyond the “beauty' (or not) of what we share in our glass.
Connections with nature. The living aspects of wine.
Connections with the “other” artist who put her or his energy into marking that wine.
Connections between us. The stories we shared. The things we have in common.
The canvases are the experiences we could create together. You and me. Us and wine. Whenever the time is right.
For those interested in discovering Tania’s Portraits, here is the link to her website.
These are her words:
“I create portraits to guide others to notice and appreciate what’s already there, waiting to be re-discovered and celebrated.
Poetry and beauty can be found in everyday life, no matter where you work, or what you do.
I use my artist's eye to draw out the essence of people, places and objects and call out the beauty that might otherwise be lost in a sea of information overload. What’s been brought to the forefront acquires meaning, and now has the potential to change the way we see the world.”
