The Angel's Share — Joy H Selak PhD

Many years ago, I visited an old French winery, deep in an underground cave. The barrels were lined up on stands side by side, made of old oak and covered with dust. There were cobwebs in the corners and the space had a musty smell. As the winemaker told us about the history of the winery, the region, and the varietals they made, I studied the barrels.

I was writing a novel about a California winery—and a young woman who came to work there to start her life anew. As she spent a year in the vineyard, she watched the tiny grapes mature and hang heavy on the vine. Then they were harvested and crushed, their juice separated from the seeds and stems. Next the mixture was moved to a huge vat, blended, stirred, and allowed to ferment. The skins, seeds and stems were kept in this mix, or not, depending on the varietal. At last, the pure, strained wine was moved into wooden barrels to age to perfection.

As my character watches this process, she sees the rebuilding of her own life. Planting the seeds, allowing for growth, then harvesting, blending all she had learned, and allowing time to age, to learn. What neither I, nor my character, had observed was the roughly made, and sometimes cracked or broken corks that plugged the barrels as the wine aged.

“Why are the corks so misshapen?” I asked the tour guide. “They are broken, they don’t securely plug these barrels.”

He smiled knowingly at my question. “Why? Because, that allows for The Angel’s Share, the bit of wine that evaporates out of the barrel and into the air. It is the part we must let go. And by doing so, by letting go of The Angel’s Share, the wine is made perfect.”

There it was. Of course. To build a new life, one must learn and grow, blend and ferment, all the elements of the past to enter a complete and honest future. But, as the winemaker so wisely noted, some of one’s past must be The Angel’s Share. Some bits must be simply let go. And now, The Angel’s Share is the title of my book, and a sacred part of that young woman’s journey to the future she desires.