The Dish by Andrew Friedman

Author:Andrew Friedman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

Each time Reuben produces a batch of sauce during service, he adds the requisite amounts of the aromatic-infused butter and red wine reduction to a saucepan. He brings it quickly to a simmer, whisking the whole time to integrate the flavors. The bubbling sauce that comes together derives its primary flavors from the produce and product of two independent farms owned and overseen by two very different men, both of whom—by a cosmic coincidence—were once bound for the pulpit . . .

Every morning at dawn, James Lester—proprietor and vintner of Wyncroft, situated about two hours from Chicago, around the east side of Lake Michigan—floors the pedal of his pickup truck, racing across the ninety-four-acre estate, leaning on the horn and blasting a shotgun into the air. He’s not charging headlong into battle, nor has he gone stark, raving mad. The ritual is his deceptively humane way of training the wild turkeys and raccoons who populate the woods on the outskirts of his property to stay among the trees and clear of the grapes that will, in time, become the wines he makes, bottles, and sells. At dusk, he’ll repeat the exercise. If, over time, any raccoons fail to get the message, he’ll trap and relocate them to another forest nearby.

James doesn’t look the sort to drive a pickup or brandish—let alone discharge—a shotgun. His Norseman’s gray mane and beard suggest a man out of time, and his immediate surroundings do nothing to dispel that notion. Leave behind the contemporary two-story house with expansive glass windows that he shares with wife, Daun, the modest winemaking facility and tasting room across the driveway, and the cars parked there, and the modern world recedes.

The feng shui here is off the charts: An impeccably manicured grassy incline extends away from the residential and commercial section of the property, opening onto acres of neatly aligned rows of trellises on which small clusters of grapes are evenly spaced and immaculately maintained. The natural light here captivates. By day, it casts storybook beams across the grass. At night, as the sun sets, shadows stretch from the trellises across the lawn until darkness falls.

Love among the vines: James Lester and Daun Page.

©Miriam Teft 2023

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