My couple of days in Monterey are about to come to an end. They seemed even shorter, because I had to spend one of them chained to my desk working on an urgent article for the German wine magazine FINE (that is the long article was in German). Never mind, yesterday I was able to head down the coast with my traveling companion Wolfram Eberhard from Berlin. Looking out over the Pacific all my work seemed about as far away as Asia is on the other side of that ocean and I felt close to the banks of fog climbing the coastal hills in the distance. Then over a sandwich and a beer at The Bakery in Big Sur a moment of inspiration gave me the opening words for my next book, and reminded me that for some time I’ve been meaning to write some kind of statement. I’m not talking about a “mission statement”, because I’m not working according to the instructions of the Commander in Chief, God or anyone else high up. And my statement will also be full of questions that I’m asking myself, and think might be worth you asking yourselves too. There will be no neat, round answers, because those things are like wet pebbles that slip through your fingers in a moment. Hard facts are more like jagged little rocks, but it’s hard work hunting them down, and this is something I’m still working on. Please don’t expect too many of them and please be patient, because this thing is going to take a few days if it is to be any good and I do believe in good. However, delivering this statement is a promise that I will keep.
