Eight Hundred Grapes

Synchronization is a motif throughout the narrative, often used as a guiding principle for how the Ford family believe that they come together. Dan suggests that synchronization isn’t to be confused with fate, as fate would determine a predestined ending—one in which circumstances and personal choices have no meaning or impact on one’s life. Instead of believing in a predetermined outcome, Dan and his family believe in the coming together of perfectly aligned parts that are incomplete without each other. It is the choice of aligning these separate elements, in other words, that allows for the perfect result: “Fate suggests no agency. Synchronization is all about agency. It involves all systems running in a state where different parts of the system are almost, if not precisely, ready” (14). For Dan, this is best expressed in how he approaches making biodynamic wine. As Georgia explains, it’s not just the grapes that matter; it’s all of their surrounding environment, too, that needs to thrive for the grapes to grow optimally: “He considered not just the grapes themselves, but—as he liked to espouse—the ecological, social, and economic systems that need to be synchronized in order to properly grow them” (14).