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I grew up staying on the concrete sidewalks of the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky, where bourbon runs deep in our blood but wine mostly comes from a box or communion. So how did I become a vineyard chasing, elevation seeking wanderer you ask?

 

Maybe it was the rare bottle of Cabernet Franc opened up at a raucous dinner party that the host had been saving for "a night just like tonight," that tasted like truffles and bad decisions. Or maybe it was the first time I hiked above the tree line, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean from the top of Maine as the sun began its evening setting over America.

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To me, wine and hiking are both about celebrating those moments where you feel alive, connected to the Earth and the people on it. It’s not about the buzz from the booze or the sweat from the climb, it's about recognizing all that came before you to make that bottle or carve that trail. I feel like I honor the land, the people, and the miracles that led to their creation by letting myself pause from the more uninspiring parts of life to purposefully indulge in something beautiful. And they are both a damn good time, of course. 

 

With wine, humans can do everything they can to make the best product possible, but at the end of the day, we can’t make the sun shine and the rain fall. But I love how winemakers take on that risk while embracing the humility that comes from accepting that they aren’t in control. When I am hiking, I am experiencing the same kind of humbling exercise, taking a risk to venture out, witnessing the vast wildness of Earth and celebrating how small I am in comparison.

 

Drinking wine and hiking are both about respecting all the time, energy, effort it took to get you to that cork or on that peak, and then appreciating the delicious irony that all of it was just for these sweet, fleeting moments of pure enjoyment. Nothing makes me feel more alive, so I am traveling the world to chase that feeling, to indulge my human instinct to be wowed. 

 

I get a dose of awe every time I open other bottle or conquer another trail, and I just want to share that with the world, mostly so I don't go completely insane with all of these reflections swirling around my mind and pictures clogging up my iCloud. So this website is part tour guide, part therapeutic outlet for me to release what I gather throughout my journeys.  There has to be other Wine Trotters out there, right? Right?? 

- Alex Kimura