Posted by andrea, April 21st, 2010
(a) Beach – eco Chic by the Water
We are back from New Zealand, back from harvest and sorting through all our media that we will share shortly. In the meantime, its Earth Week- Yay! And I have been itching to post some awesome sustainable acrhictecture from around the world. So feast your eyes on these tight cribs! My fav for sure is the place above (a), I’m definitely a lay by the beach with a glass of wine in your hand, type of girl! What are you a,b or c?
(b) Mobile eco – Luxury
(c) Suburban eco – Fabulous
Posted by andrea, April 2nd, 2010
Who doesn’t like the chocolatety goodness of Caramello Easter Eggs? I don’t know anyone, but if you do, they must have serious taste bud issues – sorry! So this Easter if your chasing around your kids, nephews nieces, cousins, friends, whoever at an Easter egg hunt, I suggest you get your hands on one of these little babies. Next, find a medium bodied Pinot Noir and start the process of a little sip sip nibble , I promise you, its pure bliss!
Happy Easter 
Posted by andrea, April 1st, 2010
Harvest has started in Marlborough WoHoooooooo ! We have been told everything is looking excellent! I am super excited to go back home and being back in the vineyard with the grapes. For those of you that have not been to New Zealand yet, let us know if there is anything specific anyone wants to see while we are down there. I have persuaded my friend Dan, who has some serious hollywoodesque filmmaking skills, to come down with us and shoot harvest and crush. So lets hope for good weather, everything is golden so far, which brings me to my last installment of the Bacchus dedications for the eco.love wines harvest New Zealand 2010.
Probably the most famous of all, the above is by Michelangelo and is a over life – size marble sculpture of the deity. Bacchus holds in his right hand a goblet and his left hand a tiger skin, along with a bunch of grapes that are being eaten by a faun. These three things have been translated to symbolize ”For the love of grapes”.
With this symbolism, I will end my last Bacchus entry, I think we are in his good graces:). Most of all, we can relate to this artwork. For we have a love of grapes, love of wine and having a really good time!
Posted by andrea, March 25th, 2010
We are around two weeks away until harvest in Marlborough, emotions are running high and there’s a fine line between success and failure. So Let me explain. Most people don’t realize that growing grapes for wine, is a tough endeavour. There is extreme attention to detail that goes into growing these little berries for nearly a year. It’s waking up at dawn, battling extreme temperatures, working all day til sun set, all so the winemaker can have ridiculous quality of grapes to make insanely delicious wines.
Unfortunately harvest happens to be all dependent on a window of a few weeks in Marlborough when the weather is super temperamental and extreme fluctuations could have disastrous affects. So yeah……everyone is on edge.
Which brings me to my #2 offering of Bacchus Artwork during the eco.love Wines Harvest 2010. This portrait by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) has humor to it as well as seriousness. The pink faced Bacchus is half drunk with his eyes slanted, not really a convincing Greaeco-Roman God. The notable scholarly focus is of the uneatable fruit in the basket in front of him. Its suppose to represent the quality and state of the world, which I guess at the time , wasn’t that great?
Spoiled good fruit is on my mind, so this artwork has some relevance. The general formula is good grapes= good wines and if we can achieve this, then we can all enjoy ourselves and be pink faced like this Bacchus — minus the nasty rotten looking fruit.
Posted by andrea, March 14th, 2010
The countdown begins, we are about three weeks away from the start of harvest 2010 in Marlborough. Per usual, we are all hoping and praying that the weather holds up. If it does, this harvest should be a stunna! So between now and the time we get back to NZ, to pick those delicious little berries, I thought it would be relevant we pay tribute to Bacchus the Roman and Greek God of Wine. Why you may ask? let’s just say a little extra help never hurt and it may be interesting for some, to learn a few factoids about this guy that inspired so many paintings and the consumption of copious amounts of wine.
For those of you unfamiliar with this Deity, he is the son of Zeus, the patron of intoxication, fertility and abundance. Throughout the centuries Bacchus has been uniquely portrayed by many artists, so up until harvest I will post the best ones I can find.
Bacchus is often portrayed with decent looking young androgynous boys, to strapping young men, to common everyday Joe’s. But here, in Cornelius de Vos’ “Triumph of Bacchus”(above) we have the epitome of inebriation and plenty. The fat Bacchus here represents sexual and caloric excess. He is the god of abundance after all, shown here in obese and still androgynous fashion in an orgiastic display of drunkenness and gluttony. Yep, he’s a real looker in this one! If art is the desire for painters to express and record their personalities in the world they live, has society really changed since this was painted?
Whatever the case, this should be duly noted (Greek Gods!) as Bacchus #1 Harvest New Zealand 2010, I’ll keep em coming!
