CONTEST: Why I Want to Go To Portugal to Visit Enoforum Wines with Jo Diaz
My cousin Margo likes to share her world of wine with me, and in so doing, she’s turns me onto things I might otherwise miss. She just came across a totally fascinating artist, who is recreating the wine world in a very unique way. Ironically, Margo is still in New England, and yet she just pointed me in the direction of someone who lives just minutes away from where I live. The magic of reaching out just connected me to Dr. Sondra Barrett, for the first time.
Sondra is a scientist and educator who merges science, art, and lifestyle skills. She has created totally captivating images of the inner beauty of wine, as seen with polarizing light, where she photographs though a microscope. This process captured the amazing images of a world unlike any other we’ve heretofore seen. Sondra’s created the blending of art and science with images that an artist would have a difficult time initially imagining, without first having visited this world of hers.
Frankly, I’ve never seen anything quite like this, and felt it would be fun to share with anyone who’s yet to discover Sondra and her unique gift to the visual arts world.

Sondra’s work has been featured in international publications, at tasting events, in wineries, and in museums. Her work is part of the Olympus Bioscapes 2009 Museum Tour. Barrett shares her passion for the heart and spirit of wine in her new book Wine’s Hidden Beauty.
On her Website www.SondraBarrett.com, it’s written: “The microscope gives us an illuminating view of the familiar. Discover the tantalizing expressions of wine, food, inner space and mystic molecules.”
For me, although the views are of wine, which is familiar to me, it’s still more an illuminating view of the unfamiliar. It’s been years since I’ve explored anything through a microscope’s lens. Seeing wine at this level is very unique… This is the yin-yang of that statement, and what’s she’s offering the world to see… Images that are breathtaking.
The book’s cover image you might recognize as Heidi Peterson Barrett’s La Sirena Moscato Azul – “Heidi’s Angels” label. Heidi Peterson Barrett grew up in Napa Valley, as part of a wine making family, destined to become one of the world’s foremost winemakers. The combination of her scientist-winemaker father and her artist mother, gave birth to Heidi’s natural born talents that led her into the wine industry.

Until the end of September, Sondra has a gallery exhibition, including this piece, which is a 30 x 40 photographic portrait. It’s entitled “Sir Blanc” – Sauvignon Blanc, by Sterling Vineyard.
Sacred Beauty of Inner & Outer Worlds June-September 30, 2009 Noetic Sciences Earthrise Retreat Center, 101 San Antonio Road, Petaluma, CA 94952
Packaged into a beautiful full color gift book, Wine’s Hidden Beauty blends science and art into a sensual experience of wine. Among the winemakers and wineries included: Jim Fetzer, Andre Tschelischeff, Heidi Peterson Barrett, Mike Grgich, Mike Benziger, Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu, Quintessa, Chateau La Mondotte, and FE Trimbach.
This link is for ordering her book.
If you’re thinking about what to give your wine connoisseur friends or family members who seem to have everything, this would certainly be something extraordinary to add to his/her/their collection.
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