“While there’s often a disconnect between spirituality and celebration, in The Soul of Wine Gisela Kreglinger invites us into the vineyard to experience the abundance of God. Written by the daughter of a German vintner, the book heralds cultural healing through God’s gift of wine.”
Sandra McCracken, singer-songwriter and recording artist in Nashville
“Anyone who loves wine knows that it is the world’s most spiritual beverage—a beverage steeped in mystery and transformation. In this deeply personal account, Gisela Kreglinger explores how wine can evoke the divine in everyday life. Kreglinger shares thoughtful musings, examples, and ideas that spiritual wine lovers will find captivating and affirming.”
Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible
“Here is a wine book that is at once wise, refreshing, and delightful: wise because it draws on a lifetime’s Christian reflection on wine and on the wisdom of Scripture and tradition, refreshing because it sets the reader free from all the absurd competitiveness and anxiety of wine snobbery and restores wine to its rightful place at the heart of inclusion and community, and delightful because Gisela Kreglinger addresses the reader with such clarity, charm, and style. This book not only celebrates the soul of wine, it also speaks deeply to the soul of its readers.”
Malcolm Guite, Girton College, Cambridge
“Spirituality and wine are two realms that have been too often reserved for an elite class of devotees and drinkers. To me, this is a tragedy as I consider the fruit of the vine to be one of God’s greatest gifts, and artfully made wine to be one of the most profound and pleasurable collaborations between God and humans. I am thankful that in The Soul of Wine Gisela Kreglinger is making both soul and wine accessible and inviting to the expert and beginner alike. Cheers!”
Adam McHugh, wine tour guide and sommelier, author of The Listening Life
“When I was growing up, my father and two uncles were preachers. For communion, Welch’s grape juice was served. Such blasphemous deprivation might explain why I ended up in the business of fine wines. What a joy to find a book that combines divinity and vinity (to coin a word). Believers and nonbelievers will gain new respect for the fermented fruit of the vine. A gem of a book, it is a great read and makes me wonder why some modern religions treat wine as a sin when the Bible so clearly considers it God’s gift to man and womankind.”
Kermit Lynch, wine importer and author of Adventures on the Wine Route
“I read The Soul of Wine with increasing delight and ever deeper emotion. This book offers wisdom not just about wine, but about our souls as well—about the joy, grief, and beauty that shape all of our stories, and that are so intertwined with the making of wine. It will help me drink more slowly and more meaningfully not just from my next glass of wine, but from life itself.”
Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
“As much as wine delights and communes its drinkers, it intimidates and divides some as well. In The Soul of Wine, Kreglinger dispels the myth that wine appreciation requires a distinguished palate or an elite vocabulary. Rather she presents wine as a simple gift from God that, when stewarded well, offers a glimpse of creation as it is meant to be.”
Kendall Vanderslice, author of We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God
“Wine saturates the Scriptures. God gave wine ‘to gladden the hearts of humanity,’ to deepen our understanding and celebration of a redeemed life. Yet many of us, to be ‘spiritual’ have abstained. Gisela wisely and beautifully shows us a better way. The Soul of Wine opens our eyes, our mouths, and our appetites to learn and taste all that God has so lavishly given. I’m feasting and rejoicing more fully because of it.”
Leslie Leyland Fields, author/editor of The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God