Learning about wine

Most people on this forum sound like excellent wine conoisseurs, and I’m wondering how everyone learned about wine? Just by tasting many varieties and growing up with it, or do some take courses or go on wine tasting tours? I myself would like to be a little more experienced with varieties of wine.

Caroline, welcome - though I’d call us enthusiasts rather than connoisseurs, which sounds pretentious to me.

I can only speak for myself. I learned by tasting, tasting and more tasting . . . along with quite a bit of reading. Just jump right in. You’ll swim just fine.

Hi Caroline. Welcome to this Board.

There is probably no one correct way. I learned through trial and error, finding styles I enjoyed, reading a bit and using Boards such as this one to hone in on producers. My learning curve has been gradual, halting … and I’ve made lots of mistakes and wasted some money. The nice thing is that this is a social hobby and the journey can be a lot of fun.

Don’t take the knuckleheads on this Board too seriously!

I resemble that remark.

Start with a corkscrew and a glass.

Welcome. Understand that everyone’s palate is unique and different. Drink what you like and drink as widely as possible. Don’t fall into a clique that for psychological reasons beyond my ability to explain only drinks one thing.

If able, and alot of fun with your friends, is to drink different wines blind (bagged and numbered) to see if what you think you really like, is what you really like.

Pretty much what Bob said (and Peter, too). If you can find a good wine shop with a knowledgeable staff, go during quiet hours and pick their brains. Start out with relatively low-priced wines - no need to buy a Ferrari to learn to drive. Plus, if you don’t like the wines of a region why spend a lot of money to find that out?

If you can, join in some of the more controlled offlines (in other words, Berserkerfests are not great vehicles for learning ) featured here, as you can taste quite a few more expensive wines while buying only one.

Bob nailed it. Try to find some folks in your area interested and do some group events where everyone brings a bottle of a certain area or variety or both. Do some bagged and some unbagged.

Welcome!

So you’re saying throwing shrimp, green beans, duck parts and corks wasn’t a learning experience at PDH a few weeks back? [gheyfight.gif]

1. Reading is fun [and can be very informative], but at some point you have to quit reading and start tasting.

2. Unless you are a billionairesse trust-fund baby, you need to get to as many FREE [or highly subsidized] tastings as possible - do NOT waste your own money on purchasing wines to experiment with that merchants ought to be opening for you for FREE.

3. Your tastes will not necessarily agree with other peoples’ tastes, and if you’re with the kinds of people who like to ridicule you for having the wrong tastes, then just IGNORE them, and drink what you enjoy.

4. In all likelihood, your tastes will change over time - what you enjoy now will not necessarily be what you enjoy five years from now. Also, the “flow” of your tastes might not necessarily be “linear” - you might find that that “flow” will “loop” around over itself in time - you might love a style of wine right now, hate it five years from now, then in another five years, come to discover that you love it again.

5. All the Central Coast pinot guys will hate me for saying this, but red wine will give you REALLY BAD HANGOVERS. Long term, you will be a lot happier drinking a single glass of Riesling [or Prosecco or Chablis or Gruner Veltliner] every night rather than an entire bottle of red wine.

I drank beer and scotch throught college. I found out in medschool that if you drink 4 drinks a night you are an alcoholic, but if you drink a half a bottle of wine a night you are a bon vivant, I like the frenchie sounding word better, though I drink very little french wine.
I would advice that you read, read, read in boards. Pay no attention to reviewers until you figure out what you like at first. Dont buy extreme ammounts because your palate will shift over time. Dont buy into any “wisdom.” Not everyone ends up liking Burgundy and Bordeaux. Try to get into a tasting group or form one with your friends. Doesnt have to be fancy or expensive just a reason to taste different bottles in any range. And dont do what a lot of us do often and forget that it is just wine and its meant to be shared and enjoyed.
Oh and if you find yuorself bitten by the bug and start buying more bottles than you can drink, plan on a huge cellar. Itll become that anyway

Lots of good advice here. My Dad had cellar growing up. I took over the beer & wine dept in my Dad’s grocery store after college and figured I should learn something; plus, I knew that I already enjoyed wine.

I subscribed to wine mags, read books, took classes, went to tastings put on by retailers/restaurants, etc… I also tasted just about everything I could get my hands on, too. All the reading is great but always remember the best wine is the wine you like best. Even tough someone from a magazine says its great it may not be great to you.

Oh, and reading the comments of the besotted reprobates on boards like this can also be a great help…

JD

Have to disagree here. Alcohol causes hangovers. Correlation with anything else causing them has yet to be accomplished.

Tender souls might blanche.

Or…you could use common sense and drink a glass of red wine as you would a glass of any white junk

Define [u]“Correlation”[/u].

Welcome, Caroline. Here’s my first piece of advice for someone getting into wine. Take notes about what you drink and what you taste in it and why you like it. Assigning words to attributes helps you to gauge your pallet and better understand what you’ll want to look for in wine.

Beyond that, there are fun things that can help. Acid and Tannin can have similar qualities when you are drinking wine. Get some acid-free orange juice and you’ll appreciate what acid brings to the wine. Taste a wet teabag for half a second and you’ll get what the tannin brings to the wine.

The book the “Wine Bible” is a general good primer for beginners. Read a lot. The online forums are a good resource but take things with a grain of salt and don’t rush out to buy things that each poster extols.

Taste a LOT of wines of ALL styles and varietals. Attend cheap to free tastings like at your local Whole Foods or wine shop. Don’t let the price tag influence you on whether you enjoy a wine or not.
On a related note, learn how to spit wine so you don’t get wasted at the tastings.

Try to get a group of friends to share in the price of an expensive bottle so you get to try the extravagant bottles that you read about in books and online.

Getting hooked by going to wineries and tasting and learning by reading books (back then Al Gore had yet to invent the internet ). The web today offers a huge resource to draw from, but remember, not everything on the internet is true . I also see a lot more retail tastings where you get to try before you buy. I have been doing this since 1982 and still learning. I just asked the board for info on Prosecco. The wine world is so large you can and do spend a lifetime learning and exploring, that is why it is never dull. Welcome to the insanity.

A true wine geek goes through the following spiritual stages:

Stage 1 “Genesis” - Have an epiphany wine that makes you want to get more serious about wine
Stage 2 “Confusion” - Realize that there are so many bewildering choices that its difficult to decide what to buy
Stage 3 “Discipleship” - Start following the ratings of a respected wine critic as a guide to what to buy
Stage 4 “Cognitive Dissonance” - Do your best to tell yourself that you are actually enjoying all the highly rated wines you are drinking
Stage 5 “Awakening” - Realize that taste in wine is subjective and you need to determine for yourself what you like
Stage 6 “Rage” - What the fuck am I going to do with all this wine I bought that i don’t actually like?
Stage 7 “Dinner Parties” - Unload the wine on friends at non-wine-geek dinner parties. They will likely be impressed as the wines are highly rated.
Stage 8 “The Quest” - Taste, taste and taste some more to see what regions, producers and vintages you like
Stage 9 “Enlightenment” - OMFG! Burgundy!
Stage 10 “Dark Night of the Soul” - OMFG these things are expensive!
Stage 11 “Inner Peace” - German Riesling! And cheap too!