What have you learnt on your wine journey?

Wine 101: The Basics
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  1. When drinking more than one, drink the best first!

  2. Food makes wine better, wine makes food better…sometimes…

  3. I’m not good at describing wine beyond the cliche terms.

  4. Everyone is a critic. When retailers started scoring the whole system lost credibility.

  5. Obviously retailers are in it to sell and make money, don’t let them tell you what you would like or should like.

  6. I like producers, not regions or varietals. Usually if I like a certain wine from a producer, I will like mostly all the stuff they make.

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  1. As a beginner, a great way to learn your preferences is (i) trying a lot of wines over a short period of time [e.g., when doing multiple tasting rooms], (ii) when you find something you like, ask the pourer to describe the wine to you and really try to nail down the descriptor of the taste/feeling you gravitated to, and (iii) finding other wines with that descriptor going forward to hone down.

  2. Folks will bully you into thinking you are inexperienced when the wine is fact bad

  3. Different people disagree truly on when wine has gone bad

  4. You generally do get what you pay for

  5. It is difficult to taste wines in their peak / properly aged

  6. The vast majority drink their wine too young

  7. Trust your instinct for what you like/don’t like

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That the more I learn, the more I realize there is still to learn or yet to be understood.

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I learned my credit card bill gets too high too fast.

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@Berry - by contrast, I actually agree with most of what you said! I’d love to know more about why you disagree with my points. I feel like I didn’t say much that’s controversial.

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Drinking wine with others is more fun

Sharing wine makes me happy

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Hi Rajiv
I’m not Berry, but for my own part I’d say I had quite the opposite view on 1, and whilst I have more agreement with your point number 2, there comes a point in many styles where preferences are so strong (either way) that I don’t especially have the desire to have a discussion about quality, let alone worry about what that might be on a points scale. I think it’s pertinent background that I don’t like points or use them, which is a bit of a giveaway to where my views are on objective quality.

Your 3 has me vehemently agreeing with your statement.

For 4 I’ve enjoyed wine with Indian food, though for me tannins are often a big no-no, but rather perversely warm climate soft and luscious reds can be a bizarrely decent match. Almost by default though, I’d lean towards lighter white wines, though a proper Lambrusco in Ferrara, Italy, was a fun match for the Indian food there. I daresay other fizz is an option as well (as it is with a wide range of foods). That said, unless we’re talking of specific subsets of Indian food (e.g. the Bangladeshi / Pakistani anglicised standard menus established over here) there is huge variety, as evidence by a feast put on by Indian colleagues at work recently. Picking one single dish out, the Paneer in mustard sauce was one that showed something far from our sheltered view of what the food style is.

  1. Paying attention to what you taste and what you write certainly does help the learning & personal understanding. For me it teaches me more about what appeals to me (and why) than trying to extrapolate to what I might see as objectively good, which is not a target I care to pursue.

So there are things we disagree about, but also things we agree on. I like how you explain your thoughts, so even if I disagree, I have an insight into why you feel that way. It would be hypocritical of me to entertain thoughts of being ‘right’ on any of the above, when I’m making the case for personal preference as the driving force for me!

[cheers.gif]

Regards
Ian

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I love talking about wine, sometimes the conversations aren’t even about wine. [cheers.gif]
I eat a lot of spicy food from around the world and Riesling works really well. So does beer. [wink.gif]

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Seek out opportunities to taste. Read to get the back story and nuances (reading complements tasting, doesn’t replace it).

Ask questions.

Be true to your own palate. Whether someone else likes or dislikes a wine is irrelevant UNLESS you have determined that your palates align, i.e. you have similar tastes. Be wary of people who pronounce absolutes about wine. There is almost nothing absolute about it.

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  • Taste blind, it can help eliminate the hype of overly PR’d wines.
  • Wine always tastes better at the winery! It’s as much about the experience
  • Don’t over think food and wine pairings
  • Wine is not only for the weekends!
  • Talk to staff in wine bars/Local wine store, you would be surprised what you could learn
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That’s a great question. Here’s just a few things I’ve learned over the years.

A.) Embrace changes in palate. What I like today is significantly different than 5 years ago. This has occurred through being exposed to a broader array of varietals and regions. I expect it will continue to change and evolve and that’s fine by me.
B.) I’ve moved away from overblown wines that are overly extracted and high in alcohol.
C.) I love northern Rhone Syrah’s. There’s something magical about that grape and what those Frenchmen do with it.
D.) 98% of my cellar was at one time composed of red wine. That percentage is decreasing rapidly, as I’ve come to embrace French whites.
E.) I’ve learned that I have a low tolerance for overly acidic red wines.
F.) I thought Champagne gave me a headache, so I avoided it. I just found out I was drinking the wrong sparkling wines. Now I have a growing collection of Champagne and absolutely love it.

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Blog for those studying wine… https://www.winerefs.com/post/my-wine-journey

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  1. The best assessment of a wine is at the end of the bottle, not the beginning.

  2. Don’t follow Champagne with white Burgundy.

  3. Don’t buy at the winery if it’s a producer you are not already familiar with.

  4. Group tastings tend to be poor predictors of how a wine will drink at the table.

  5. Wines from regions that have been making and drinking wines for many generations will generally produce better wines, and almost always provide better value.

  6. In traditional regions, price is a pretty good proxy for quality. Outside traditional regions, not so much.

  7. You really do need a cellar and a plan. It’s very hard, and very expensive, to drink well buying off the shelf and from restaurant lists.

  8. Cap your weeknight intake at half a bottle, less if you lean towards 14+ wines.

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I learned something quite recently:

I made a skin-contact Marsanne last year. And through all of this (and to the OP’s question), I came to the conclusion that I don’t actually like Orange wines in the Gravner, Kabaj-style so much. I thought I did and I thought I needed to make a wine in this style. But they obscure too much fruit and become too serious. It’s almost like you avoid opening them up with anything but a heavy meal or when you have people over you want to impress. That’s not what white wines should be about, I think. So, by pure luck and not by my clever winemaking skills, the Marsanne I did never took to the skins that much in taste and color even after 4 months, and kept its peachiness. It’s a light straw color, like urine (in fact, I was shocked at how light it came out) [wow.gif]. Sure, there are some substantial tannins there, but it’s more like a very structured white.

I will continue to do skin contact whites for this harvest (different grape, though), but less time on the skins so as to not obscure too much. I hope I can find a good balance between skins and freshness in my white winemaking as I evolve.

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Support new wineries. They are usually pushing the boundaries and without them, wine is not as exciting.

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Palates eventually change, don’t stock up on Napa cabs and don’t try to buy every premium bottle you see on IG. Trust the producer over vintage.

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“The inability to read sheet music doesn’t inhibit you from loving a song. And just like good music can make you feel energized, happy, contemplative, romantic—so too can wine. You just have to let it sing. So drink with curiosity and an open mind rather than approaching with a goal.”
Regrettably, I cannot recall whose quote this was.

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Wine is not consumed the same way by each person; instead it is experienced and interpreted by each individual differently. Thus it could be compared to art more than your typical consumer good.

(First post! Great thread.)