Recently I traveled to the wonderful Burnt Hill Solstice Festival in Maryland, which also took me to Washington D.C., and on Sunday, I carved out some time for myself. I used that time to visit the National Gallery of Art as there was a particular painting I wanted to see, the only Leonardo Da Vinci painting in the Americas, his portrait of Ginevra dé Benci.

I had recently finished the book Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson and did not want to miss the opportunity to see an actual work by the master as it had been many decades since I saw The Mona Lisa at The Louvre and The Last Supper in Milan. I reread the chapter about the Ginevra de’ Benci portrait and read everything else I could find online to ready myself for the experience. When I found the gallery room, I was transfixed by the work spending the better part of an hour with it. Everything I had done to prepare for the visit elevated my experience of the great painting. I was fully adding my beholder’s share to the art.

When we interact with creativity, it’s not only the creation but us that bring something to the table. This is called the beholder’s share.

The painter Marcel Duchamp said that an artist only does fifty percent of the work in creating art while the viewer, the beholder, provides the rest. This concept was popularized by art historians Ernst Gombrich and Ernst Kris as the beholder’s share. The beholder partners with the artist in bringing meaning to their work. Neuroscientist Anil Seth has incorporated this concept into his theories of consciousness. “Science and art have long recognized that perceptual experience depends on the involvement of the experiencer. The shared idea is that our perceptual experience – whether of the world, of ourselves, or of an artwork – depends on the active interpretation of sensory input, “ writes Seth.

When we interact with wine, it’s not only the winemaker but us that have the opportunity to make wine. There are wines that invite the beholder’s share, and there are those that seek to provide the entire experience on their own — your only job is to swallow.

While working in the Napa Valley, I saw a grape optical sorter at work for the first time and was filled with envy. Certainly, this would improve our wines, and I had to find access to one of these modern winemaking marvels. These machines removed everything but perfect fruit, which came out of the machine looking like the flawless blueberries you see in little boxes in the grocery store. What could make better wine?

The very next vintage, I found one and reserved our time for the upcoming harvest. The machine worked as advertised and cleaned out anything that was not perfect. It took out everything, including the soul of the wine. What was left produced lush, round, velvety wine that rolled down the gullet, neither requiring nor requesting any participation from the consumer — the beholder’s share has more risk than reward for these kinds of wines.

Having only perfect grapes is not how nature envisioned winemaking. In the industrial world of winemaking, there are the giants who mass-produce lower-priced wines without sorting grapes at all and then just correct shortcomings with additives and technology, and then there are the high-priced cult wines who sort ruthlessly yet still use additives. Oddly enough, they end up with similar styles of wines. Supple, easy wines with a ripe, round sweetness (either from dense fruit and alcohol or from actual residual sugar or both) and just enough acidity to still be considered wines.

There are a lot of pop stars who have become rich with music that requires no beholder’s share. They keep pumping out the formula with no thinking required or requested on the listener's part. It’s a much easier way to make money. I see these stars performing with so much going on around them — crowds of dancers and backup singers — and I understand they don’t want me to bring anything of myself to appreciate their performance. They’ll fill in all the blanks for me. Wineries use the same strategies.

You don’t have to be a wine expert to bring a beholder’s share to wine appreciation; you just have to pay attention. I’m not talking about a razor focus with the perfect glass, the perfect meal, or the perfect anything. It’s just bringing awareness, a few seconds of mindfulness when you behold a wine. That experience can range from simply quenching thirst to a life-changing experience. It’s you that makes a glass of wine come to life.

The idea of the beholder’s share is that the artist and the beholder combine to make an artwork meaningful. Your contribution is the part you get to keep. You get to keep it at long as you are conscious. That’s the gift you receive from the creator and the gift you give back to them. It’s that transaction that makes creativity transcendent.

The beholder’s share is what makes winemaking an art; without it, wine is simply beverage alcohol. When you take a second to devote your attention to a wine, you share in its creation with those that grew the grapes and made the wine. At Troon Vineyard, as everyone has become more immersed in biodynamic regenerative agriculture, we have realized that our beholder’s share is in understanding and honoring nature’s plan and expressing that in our wines. Your beholder’s share gives life to our expression of the life on our farm.

We’re all in this together.