From the Alchemist's Table - A Summer Initiation 

June 2025 | Penned by Sabine, somewhere between a solstice bonfire and a fermentation experiment gone right

Ah, June.

The sun has grown impatient with subtlety and now slaps everything with light — merciless, golden, glorious. The vines have started their wild internal work (self-pollinating, bless them — romantic and efficient), and I’ve once again burned the tip of my finger trying to bottle something before it was ready. It’s fine. All part of the process.

This month at Blackthorn, we’re turning up the heat — literally and metaphorically. The theme is "Through the Fire" — an ode to transformation, to skin contact wines, to the art of becoming something new through pressure, time, and just the right amount of recklessness.

Which brings us to you, and this month’s Ritual Box.

You’ll find bottles touched by the flame — not charred, no, but kissed by it. Wines that have spent time on their skins, steeping in their own story. Wines that defy the tired binary of red or white. Rosés that riot in pink. Ambers that hum with ancient knowledge. This is alchemy you can taste.

(Quick note: “skin contact” isn’t just for orange wines — though yes, one of them might be in your box — it’s the practice of leaving the grape skins in contact with the juice during fermentation. It’s the difference between whispering a secret and screaming it into the stars.)

A NOTE ON CUSTOMIZATION:

Your box is yours — singular, tailored, divined. You won’t find the exact same bottles as anyone else (unless you’ve somehow synchronized your aura with a stranger — in which case, call me, I have questions).

Each selection is curated based on your preferences, your palate, your particular chaos. So while we speak of themes and transformations and solar-aligned sips, the bottles in your hands were chosen with you in mind. What a delicious act of magic — no two boxes alike, no two drinkers the same.

So if the types of wines we’re describing above don’t appear in your box, don’t worry — what you have is no less powerful, no less perfect for your moment.

YOUR RITUAL, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT:

• Set the scene — candles, cracked windows, citronella incense, something blooming.
• Pour slowly — let it breathe; let you breathe.
• Taste with all five senses — and if a sixth one shows up, don’t be alarmed.
• Speak a toast to the things you’ve already survived, and the ones you’re still becoming.

You don’t have to understand the wine fully to enjoy it (I rarely do). What matters is that it moves you — even if just slightly, even if just sideways.

Here’s to heat.

Here’s to transformation.

Here’s to staining your lips and forgetting where the bottle came from.

— Sabine

(P.S. If your wine looks a little hazy, don’t fret. That’s just flavor in its natural, unfiltered form. Clarity is overrated anyway.)