I'm doing a book on Chinese Vineyards and Wineries. On this last trip, I traveled all over China to visit wine growing regions. People kept telling me that I'm probably the only Westerner who has actually visited all of China's wine growing regions.This adventure is in the Yunnan Province, near Tibet.
With my 20 words of Chinese and an overwhelming desire to connect, I interacted this worker for about one hour. He harvested grapes. Over and over, he carried two baskets at 20 kilos (44 pounds) each of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes up a very steep hill to the loading truck. Hundreds of meters below roiled the muddy Lantsang (also called Lancang and Mekong) river caged in by steep rocky cliffs.
Now I look at the photos and wonder what this worker, about my age, is doing today. Harvest is done. Winter will begin soon. There but for fortune, he could be me. There but for fortune, I could be him.
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