Ever hear of “wine diamonds?”

Neither had I, until I encountered some spectacular photography of the microscopic structure of wines. These brightly colored pictures were on exhibit last fall at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, one of our favorite special places in Northeast Georgia.

They resemble phantasmal abstract paintings, which is what photographer Brad Perkins calls them, in addition to “wine diamonds.”

Perkins lives in the country around Clarkesville where he moved eight years ago. He wanted out of Texas and, in one of those great stories, discovered during a visit with his aunt here that he loved Northeast Georgia.

After minimal discussion, his wife, Joy Davies, said, “Let’s move.” And they did.

“This is a wonderful place to live,” he told me recently.

He has been playing with cameras and microscopes since his days as a medical photographer in Houston.

“That’s where I learned to do photography through a microscope,” he said. “It’s called photomicrography.”

So how does that link to wine?

Perkins started a small photography business in the Clarkesville area because total retirement was not in his DNA.

“I was going nuts not doing anything at all,” he said.

Then fate intervened.

“My wife came home with a cork from a local winery, and it had these crystals attached to it,” he said.

The crystals, which look like grains of sugar or salt, are actually tartaric acid crystals from the wine. And they are a good sign. Presence of those shiny crystals means the wine has not been over-filtered.

“I was looking for things to photograph,” Perkins said. “I dissolved the crystals and saw they are really beautiful. At the time I really did not know much about wine, but what I saw was stunning.

“It really was an AHA moment,” he recalled.

So Perkins decided to put his camera and microscope to work to illuminate other wines. The results are eye-catching, as you can see from the examples on this page.

Last year Jim Thomas, gallery director at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, learned of the wine diamond art and signed Perkins for a nearly eight-week exhibit.

“Everybody loved it,” Thomas said. “People truly admired his art. We would like to exhibit his works again.”

The Clarkesville area, and the stretch of Ga. 197 winding north from there, is home to many artisans and craftspeople. And Perkins photographs many of these arts and crafts pieces. His artisan wife grasped the unique beauty in the wine art.

“Joy started making jewelry from the (wine diamond) prints.”

Did Perkins stumble over any surprises as he studied wine down to its tiniest iteration?

“Oh yes. There’s no correlation between the type of wine — red or white — and the colors in the photograph. Every wine is different,” Perkins said. “Every crystal glows differently. And everybody sees something different in the photographs. It’s kind of like looking at clouds.”

He has used wines from The Cottage Winery, Serenity Cellars, Yonah Mountain Vineyards and Currahee Vineyards for his wine diamonds collection, as well as wines from Texas and California.

Interested in seeing more, including Joy’s jewelry? Check out winediamondart.com and marvel at wine as you’ve never seen it before.

IN MEMORIAM

One of my favorite actors, Alan Rickman, died last month. He was monumentally evil in “Die Hard” and suitably slithery as Professor Snape in the “Harry Potter” films. But in all the obituary and farewell articles, nowhere was mentioned what I think was his best role.

Rickman portrayed British ex-pat and Parisian wine merchant Steven Spurrier in the movie “Bottle Shock.” It didn’t make a lot of money and found favor generally just among wine geeks. But Rickman donned the Spurrier (no kin to the old ball coach) persona immaculately as he spun up the famous Judgment of Paris in 1976.

Spurrier set up a tasting, pitting some of upstart Napa Valley cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays against the gold standard of wines, including reds from Bordeaux and whites from Burgundy. Napa Valley trounced the French and the wine world steered into a sea change.

Rickman was Spurrier in that fine little film and I’m sorry more was not made of that.

Alan Rickman ... RIP.

BLACK BOX REVISITED

In my January column, I responded to a reader who told of an unfortunate experience with the Black Box brand of wine in a box. I noted that I, too, encountered a pair of problems with Black Box wines and the company had failed to respond to either of my inquiries to them.

After the column was published, I heard from other readers who were forced to discard some Black Box wines because of poor quality.

The people at Black Box got wind of my column and responded with the following statement from Jaymie Schoenberg, vice president of marketing at Black Box wines:

“In September of last year, we became aware that select lots of our 3-liter wines were oxidizing at an unusually rapid rate and did not meet our high standards for taste and quality. While we immediately determined there was no risk to consumer health or safety, given our strong commitment to producing only the highest-quality wines, we made the decision to voluntarily remove this product from the market.

“We sincerely apologize for any lapse in quality that consumers may have experienced. Black Box has been making quality boxed wine since 2003, and we remain committed to upholding the high standards that our customers expect. We hope you and your readers will give us another try.”

Randall Murray is a Gainesville-area resident. Have a question about wine? He can be contacted at murrwine@aol.com. His column appears on the first Wednesday of the month and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.