One of the things I most love about Field Blends is that its entire narrative occurs in the real-world. That is to say that one could follow the path of the characters to incredible real-world places, meet the actual people there, drink the wine, and experience that which Field Blends brings to otherwise fictional life. I spent time in several such of my favorite places in Spain and Sweden this past week, and wanted to briefly share their connection to the story with several short excerpts. I’ll be sharing more like these as they happen @wine30flight on Instagram.
Calle de las Huertas, Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸
“It felt liberating to step out on Huertas having just deleted my entire work account from my phone, like a rocket or plane having slipped the surly bonds of earth. Huertas was my path to freedom, the vast expanse of this glistening city my unexplored beyond. Goodbye to all that, I smiled.”
Bodegas Vegalfaro, Requena, Valencia, Spain 🇪🇸
“Wine is made great by its ability to expose the curious drinker to different things that he or she didn't know existed, to take us to other lands and climates, to teach us history, and to enrich our knowledge of the world.”
(Some liberty taken here - the Field Blends characters do not go to Valencia, but visiting Valencia and seeing this winery for the first time reminded of this sentence.)
Palace Hotel, Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸
“It was an exquisite little bar. Rich carpet. Elegant wood paneling lacquered to a shine. Black and white photographs of old Madrid hanging under museum lights.”
Julmarknad, Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪
“Just steps away is Stortorget, the town square, along which sits the Nobel Museum. There are a great many museums here. Stortorget hosts the Julmarknad, Stockholm’s Christmas market. ”
Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪
“In the center of Stockholm there is a small island called Gamla Stan. Literally, Old Town. Narrow alleys and stone streets are woven through the island, along which there are little shops and restaurants.”
Riksdaghuset (Parliament), Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪
“We stood upon the Riksbron bridge that links Helgeandsholmen — parliament’s island, more or less — with Norrmalm and the main part of Stockholm’s north side.”