A seven-year-old asked his father at the dinner table:
“Why do people have to pay for food?”
His father had no answer. Finding one took an adventure across continents, a tumor that should have killed him, a glimpse beyond death, three bestselling novels, beehives in the Rockies, and wine made of flowers. Now he tells the whole story in person, over a glass of award-winning flower wine.
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A story in three chapters
Sixty minutes. A heartfelt, inspiring story, and a discovery of wines crafted from flowers.
An explorer's life
The corporate rise across three continents. A child’s question. A surgery he wasn’t supposed to survive — and what he glimpsed beyond it. Walking away, and building a life of meaning, guided from above.
A tasting of flowers
Wine fermented from wildflower petals and nectar — the only wine of its kind in the world — poured through the story at the moments it belongs to, where the venue welcomes it, as a gift of life.
Signed & taken home
A captivating story and a wine adventure. Communities host it because their people leave inspired — and stay at the tables talking long after the last pour.
A second chance at life
The rise, and the question
An MBA, Fortune 500 executive roles, developing hotels for some of the big hotel chains across Europe and the Americas — and, on the same trips, visiting friends in the slums of Chile and Brazil. Then his young son asked why people have to pay for food, and when the executive looked into the eyes of the child, no economics — no words — could answer it.
The tumor, and the glimpse beyond
In his mid-thirties, doctors gave him little chance of surviving the operation. He survived it. In a second surgery he went further — and came back. What he saw there made him stop searching.
The walking away
He resigned from a career that had lost its meaning, and wrote the story down for his young children. The life of an author paid little. So together the family learned to live from the land: gardens, bees, bow hunting, animal husbandry, seasons, silence. Nine years of storytelling became three Canadian bestselling novels, taught in schools and universities across the country.
The flowers
The foothills had wildflowers; the settlers made dandelion wine; a lineage of seven generations of French winemakers connected the craft. Spirit Hills opened in 2012 — and wine crafted from flowers reached Michelin-star tables from Brussels to Rome.
Losing it, and beginning again
The government closed everything during the pandemic. Rather than let a single employee go, Hugo and Ilse took themselves off the payroll — and, as good as broke, started over in Texas. Florvino was born in Comfort, Texas, with its tasting room in San Antonio. The synchronicities that led there are a story to be remembered.
The full story takes an hour, and pairs well with a glass of flowers.
What the second chance wrote
Three novels about power, food, freedom and the strength of the human spirit — fiction that asks the questions polite conversation avoids.
In the Eyes of Anahita
— Dr. David C. Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World
Also available in Spanish — También disponible en español — la historia recorre tu continente.
Seeds …of Germination or Termination
— Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist and environmental activist
A People’s Power
— David Korten, board chair, YES! Magazine
At the events: signed paperbacks while they last, signed ebook cards for any device, the trilogy in both — and one inscribed first edition of A People’s Power won at every evening.
The wine the story made
Spirit Hills
Florvino
Born of the second beginning: flower wines crafted in the Texas Hill Country, a tasting room on Alamo Plaza, and home tastings hosted by Flower Somms across America.
Join us — become a Flower Somm
Flower Somms are how this story travels, just like wildflower seeds on the wind. In a world of social media, AI and robots, they bring people together, in person, around a story and a glass of flower wine to enjoy community, what it means to be human.
A somm is a storyteller and educator, earning real income rooted in human relationships, the kind no machine can take. What started with a child’s questions now feeds a movement of people who feel called to build community when we need it most — in the ancient tradition of sharing a story over a glass of wine.
Bring Wine & Wisdom to your community
Churches, community groups, wine clubs, book clubs and living rooms across the United States and Canada host this story.
- No speaker fee — a love offering is welcome where it’s your custom
- Where your venue welcomes it, the winery ships a complimentary flower-wine tasting ahead, as a gift
- A book signing at the end of every story
- Virtual stories available for groups and book clubs anywhere