The wine slump.

Do you ever get into a wine slump?

To me this is along the same lines as a food slump. I sometimes get tired of everything I'm eating. Nothing sounds good, and nothing new or different easily comes to mind.

There's a great lyric to a song from the band Nada Surf that describes this. The song is called 'Fruit Fly' and its lyrics vividly illustrate depression from the perspective of the writer's mundane observations and subsequent thoughts in observing fruit flies in his kitchen.

"Left straight right straight
I can't find a reason
I know I'll keep going but
I can't find a reason
Nothing looks right
Nothing smells right
And I can't land"

These "slumps" that I speak of are probably rooted in some form of anxiety or depression. The world has seemed particularly dark and bleak to me recently... Elections cycles are great to remind me of how dysfunctional we can be as a society. Storms, heatwaves, and droughts are constant reminders of the fragile world in which we live.

Personally and professionally, I'm feel like I'm in a bit of a purgatory. I know, I know I should just be happy to be working. Whatever.

So the wine slump... I love tasting different wines. And despite the awesomeness of moving to an area among vineyards and winemaking, my tasting regimen has suffered since getting to my destination. Before I got here I had a career in wine -- equal parts exhilarating and exhaustion. Lots of exposure and learning, but lots of stress and headache. There was no time to do the blog. Now my career is outside of wine. I've tried to move the passion for wine into a hobby by getting back into blogging, and through part-time winery work here in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Something is missing though. I'm aimlessly looking for forced exposure to new and exciting wines. Everything seems stale. I'm trying to find my way back into that exhaustion and stress. Maybe a new wave of inspiration will strike and the blog can fill the void. Short of that, all that I have to offer right now is this meandering reflection of my non-inspiration.

By the way, when mired in a wine slump and food slump, high quality store-bought sushi (thanks El Rancho Market!) and Gruet Blanc de Noirs are a good start in climbing out!

Oh yeah, check out Fruit Fly... it's a great tune.