A Bit About Me

Welcome to The Ancestral Vine

Recently, I found myself drawn to the earliest representations of wine in art. As an Art History major in college, I have always admired the creative spirit — the ways in which people capture their observations, emotions, and experiences across time. This curiosity led me down a deep rabbit hole filled with countless questions.

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I grew up in Northern California, spending summers on my family's farms — riding horses, tending to the apiaries, caring for the orchards, animals, and vineyards.

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One of my fondest memories comes from summers at my aunt’s house. Every evening at happy hour, my uncle would venture out with his metal detector, while my aunt would pour a glass of wine. Often, I was entrusted with holding the glass and asked to describe what I could detect from the aromas. "Cherry, spice, dark fruits," I would say.

At first, the scents were overwhelming — strange, even unpleasant — but over time, I learned to close my eyes, breathe deeply, and uncover the layers: the primary, secondary, and tertiary aromas hidden within the wine.

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These early experiences sparked deeper questions:
Why are all these scents present in a single glass of wine? Where do they come from?
Is it the grape? The soil? The land itself?

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The Ancestral Vine was born from these questions — a journey into the stories, the cultures, and the forgotten varieties that shaped the history of wine as we know it.

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Cheers!

Aubrey Graf-Daniels

WSET 1, WSET 2 With Distinction, Fine Vintage Ltd. Level 2