Season IX: Dr. Stephen Lloyd-Moffet, author, The Spirit of Wine: Finding Religion in the Fruit of the Vine, San Luis Obispo, CA
It’s tough to pace a conversation with Dr. Stephen Lloyd-Moffet, professor of religious studies at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California. It gets metaphysical quick, especially when he starts talking about wine, wine zealots, and the religiosity of the vine. As an amateur winemaker and wine aficionado, he saw similarities in the way people devote themselves to wine and the way people devote themselves to their faith. The idea spurned a class at Cal Poly called Religion and Wine, and research for the subject took Stephen all over the world. The result is a set of two bookst: one entitled The Spirit of Wine: Finding Religion in the Fruit of the Vine; and The Spirit of Winemakers: Finding Religion From the Vineyard to the Bottle. We chatted about humanity’s search for meaning, the sometimes madness of the mystics, and how, at the end of every wine lover’s rainbow, is a bottle of German riesling (though Stephen’s might still be Burgundy).
Website: spiritofwinebooks.com