Water in Excelsis

Water above the firmament:
    winter rain descending; the roots of vitis vivifera clutching earth.
Spring warmth:
     water drawn through vinestock, stem, and leaf; tendril, flower, fruit.
Summer heat:
     sun fierce upon the hills; in the grape now, water, glucose, fructose, tannin, acid; all beneath the thin
     firmament on which the Spirit's brooding leaves behind a bloom of yeast; Saccharomyces ellipsoideus:
     the thumbprint of the Lord and Giver of life.
Then autumn:
     basket, press, vat; sugar and yeast wantoning; earth's old September love revived:2C6H5OH+2CO2;
     fermentation; the warm must, its jaunty cap set drunkenly, rejoices in the pleasure of good company.
Here sing and brawl now
     alcohol, carbonic acid gas, acetic acid, higher alcohols, succinic acid, glycerol, and, chief among them,
Water come of age
     in the vast pots of this old Cana, where the Word, in silence, orders up new wine.
Finally:
     racking off, barreling, clearing, bottling; the long wait - for esters: alcohol and acid reconciled, wine bodied
     forth to roundness and a nose; for oxidation: tannin and alcohol softened, corners smoothed by the Spirit's
     thumb, purple shaded brown
Until
     (in Heaven it is alwaies Autumne) earth's last best gift is brought to sere and velvet elegance,
To Wine Indeed
To Water in excelsis.

...

Let us pause and drink to that.

Capon, Robert Farrar. The Supper of the Lamb. Smithmark, New York, NY, 1996. Pages 83-85