What's the Deal with Wine?

From this End of the Glass

I got into marketing and events when I interned at World Trade Center San Diego, during my senior year in college, and after graduating I started working for a local wine shop owned by a friend's parents. I started merely "liking" wine, as my experiences with the beverage being less than spectacular. I believed, at the time, that red wines were it for me; I could care less about white wines. That is, until I was introduced to "good" wine and learned that there was so much more than meets the eye, or palate. Thus my foray into wine began.

So back to the original query, why wine?

I don't know really where to begin, there are so many facets to address in such a simple question. The long standing tradition of making wine, the reason why sharing meal and drink is important to human relationships and connection, how the culture and traditions affect the viticulture (wine grape growing) and viniculture (winemaking), how wines --even the same grape --can taste so vastly different from year to year or place to place, how they don't just taste like grapes. There is just so much to explore.

I suppose for me, it's just a way to experience something deeply personal, it's a relationship between myself and what's in the bottle. I have so much respect for people involved in making wine, I think being in that industry truly takes dedication and passion. There are so many different factors that go into not just growing the grape, but everything that happens after that, it's being touched by so many people before it even reaches my glass…and sometimes that process is years in the making. As much as I love to travel, I haven't been able to do it as much as I'd like, but wine can allow a person to experience a moment in time, winemakers truly capture a year in a 750ml bottle, from thousands of miles away sometimes. Why does the same varietal (grape) taste so different? They were grown in different places, in different years, the winemaking practices were different, etc. There's so much variety that there's always something new and different to explore…and that's just exciting. The possibilities are endless.

They say that one of the strongest memories are triggered by your senses, and I believe that, I'll never forget the way I first thought I might like a white wine --albariño, there's a bright citrus character underlying a bed of salinity that I'll never forget; albariño is one of my top 5 favorite whites wines.

Wine can also bring people together to share in an experience. Let's be honest, a good bottle of wine deserves to be shared, they're not bottled in single servings, they're made to be shared. Wine is an experience and it's better with company…you'll never forget that bottle of wine, the conversation you had, the people you were with. A bottle of wine can do that. I've also been told, "sharing is caring."

Journey to Level Two of the Court of Master Sommeliers

Pursuing Level Two

Sommelier, I will admit, is a bit of a challenge…and I like that. I like learning about different cultures and the history and how it all ties together to bring about a certain wine. I also like the method of deduction. I feel like a detective…everything I need is in the glass, I just have to analyze and pull the knowledge I learned and figure it out. Becoming a Level Two Sommelier is no easy task; I understand it requires dedication to learning about the areas and tasting, and unfortunately spitting, so I'm taking things one step at a time. This just happens to be a running diary of my adventures in wine that I have along the way…

Long answer to a short question.