Distillation

The procedure of souma distillation takes hours and hours. I hadn’t realized that before, because there is always a great deal of drinking and eating with friends during the distillation, so it’s quite easy to lose the track of time. The informal tradition of the “cauldrons” involves souma tasting and a meze, like olives, cheese or dry figs. As the hours pass inside the rakitzio, the procedure of waiting becomes an actual feast, with food and music, often with singing and dancing as well. It is the presence of an impatient community eager to toast with souma glasses their way into the winter that makes the waiting fun.

But waiting and perseverance are indispensable ingredients of every fine souma: from the planting of the grapes till the lighting of the fire in faraway Aegean distilleries, there are many, many hours of work. Taking care of a vineyard is a project of commitment and love. There are dozens of smaller, or bigger things to do every day, every month, all year round, like weeding, digging, pruning, watering, harvesting… The result of all this work, one can appreciate in a moment; it’s the moment right after the toasting, when the owner of the vineyard will taste this year’s souma or wine, with the eyes closed, just like a kiss.

Charmed by this idea of patience and commitment that evolves around a project with such prosperous results, I started wondering about my own patience skill. Do I even have one? A whole life’s activities that sooner or later I gave up, flashed before my eyes: dancing lessons, Spanish lessons, yoga lessons and Pilate lessons, chess, aikido, knitting and sewing, to name just a few. After the original enthusiasm about something new I rarely have the energy to follow up and I usually prefer to get involved in various short-term projects or plans that don’t demand constant attention. I don’t know if all that sounds familiar to you, but the truth is that after spending some time at beautiful Aegean vineyards, I felt really inspired to commit to an activity that requires daily energy and time. A work to be done in concentration and tranquility like a ritual, how great is that!

As the fire is dancing inside the island distilleries and the atmosphere outside them is getting colder and darker, I can’t help thinking that the never-ending procedure of working the soil, can transform our perception of the outside world as well as the image we have for ourselves. It’s a process.

photography by christos drazos