“How long do you think it will take to produce ten-year-old wine?” At this question, you are likely to answer, “Ten years.” Actually, however, it is not too much to say that it takes more than a hundred years.
Freshly fermented wine has a bad taste and a bad smell due to yeast and carbon dioxide. Only after being contained in an oak barrel for a certain period of time, it becomes a good wine with a soft taste and flavor. This is an essential process for making wine. As barrels are usually made of oaks that are at least a hundred years old, we can say that it takes over a hundred years until ten-year-old wine is produced.
However, it does not mean that putting any wine in a barrel guarantees a premium wine. The quality of wine itself matters for the wine to have a positive effect with the oak. In other words, when the wine has a property that can be changed in a good way, it can be mature properly.
The environment around us, the people we know, the things we face in our lives . . . the earth that provides countless conditions of life can be likened to a giant oak barrel for us. If we keep making efforts with a willingness to change, wouldn’t we become a soft and fragrant person some day like a well-aged wine?