Wine Sex, Beauty in the Bottle

Only through grape's partnership with yeast, does the alchemical process called fermentation begin.

Yeast loves sugar in the sweet grape juice, chews it up and converts it into carbon dioxide and spirited alcohol. When alcohol levels reach about 15%, the yeast, 'too drunk' to work anymore, stop the process.

In wine's creation story, what is evident, yeast adds something essential to the mix of juice, acids, tannins and pigments. They not only transform the sugar into new mood-altering molecules, they bring more 'light' into the microscopic display.

This image of fermenting chardonnay reveals the tiny Montrachet yeast along with larger forms which are likely tartrates, the acid unique to the grape.

The hieroglyphics in the center are from an ancient wine jar seal, the earliest version of a wine label.

You could begin to see the wine designs uncovered with the microscope as glyphs or symbols of style. Or you might begin to think these are simply pretty pictures or that the person who took them had a wee bit more to drink than you have.

When we think of personal transformation it usually means a major spiritual change, so too with the grape.