2021 Licorice Daddy

‘Play is the stick that stirs the drink. It is the basis of all art, games, books, sports, movies, fashion, fun, and wonder — in short, the basis of what we think of as civilization. Play is the vital essence of life. It is what makes life lively.’’ – Stuart Brown, Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

It was still the Panda-Times, sometime during the late summer of 2021. We were enjoying a normal afternoon in our household, hanging out and jamming to some tunes in the kitchen while preparing dinner with our then 3 year old son, Stratis. He was snacking on a piece of red licorice he had been gifted by the cashier at our local butcher when we were checking out with our meat purchases earlier that day. Stratis started dancing around in a circle with the licorice in one hand while doing a sort of open-handed royal wave with the other hand.

‘‘That’s a cool dance move,’’ Jody said. ‘‘What do you call it?’’

Stratis paused for a moment, looked at the licorice in his hand, looked at Costa (his father), and responded enthusiastically, ‘‘it’s the Licorice Daddy!’’

‘‘The Licorice Daddy! Wow, that is a good name. That could be a wine name. Let’s add it to our list,’’ Jody replied. Later that evening, she typed a new entry into our shared Google Document entitled ‘‘Wine Name IDEAS!’’ where the Licorice Daddy percolated for a few months.

Harvest arrived. For the first time, we had the opportunity to make a wine with Cabernet Franc grapes we purchased from Osoyoos, BC. Something about the tart, juicy, redness of the wine just called for the Licorice Daddy to come to life.

Over the winter, Jody invited Stratis to paint the label artwork for his wine. She decided to try using actual sticks of licorice as paintbrushes to take the metaphor one step further. Stratis was very pleased with his initial attempt – a thoroughly mixed assemblage of all the colours that turned into a brown blob – and he confidently declared that the Licorice Daddy was complete. Jody managed to encourage him to try a few more iterations by using long strokes of pushing a single colour of paint across the page using the licorice like a squeegee, which resulted in the final artwork you see on the bottle.

This has been a delightful experiment in parenting, and in supporting a young human to take a creative idea from their own mind and body and bring it to life in the world where it can be shared. Stratis is very excited to share his first wine with you.

This wine loves doing the Licorice Daddy in the kitchen while jamming out to Blippi Essentials playlist

One word Playful

Winemoji 🎨