How did your parents introduce you to wine?

Unfortunately, wine was never really a staple in the Boldizsar household growing up. My earliest memory of sharing wine with my parents was sometime around 18-19 years of age. I couldn’t tell you what the wine was (don’t remember), but I do remember it having a downright brutal taste. Sadly, that god-awful swill turned me off to wine entirely until my friend brought me into the wine drinking fold several years thereafter. So, for those who can remember, how was tasting wine with your family for the first time? Also, how was tasting wine with your kid(s) (if applicable)?

Dude, you look like Jason Schwartzman in your new avatar.

Schwartzman wishes he were as cool as yours truly.

My dad was a retailer from 50s till the early 90s and a very unlikely wine guy as he grew up admiring the rat pack and drinking martinis, Budweiser and smoking camel cigs but, somewhere along the way he caught the Burg bug and introduced me to Puligny Montrachet 61 and early Gevrey Chambertins. He was a self made blue collar guy who sold DRC Conti for $50 in his small town Illinois store along with many other great names. Fortunately, I got to taste a lot of great 50s / 60s wine at ridiculously cheap prices in 70s thanks to my dad.

Wine was my Rushmore, man!

Parents were sporadic wine drinkers. Probably never spent more than $10 on a bottle. No clear correlation that I can chart between my upbringing and me catching the fever, although I remember being granted an ounce or two at holiday dinners when I was a teenager. My dad also dabbled in (bad) homebrew wine and beer, and I thought that was neat.
No plans to introduce my toddlers for years and years. Would be cool if they eventually took interest, but I’m so, so far away from thinking seriously about it.
I’m sure they’ll rebel against mom and dad by becoming committed Miller Lite drinkers.
Unrelated, but I would always bring pretty nice bottles to family gatherings and my sweet, now deceased grandpa would try whatever I was pouring and then let me know in his polite way that it was fine but no Carlo Rossi.

I might have had the same parents as yoou did.

Turned me off wine until i reached 43.

My folks didn’t introduce me to wine. Growing up there were jugs of Almaden Red and my Mom’s go-to white was Mondavi Fume Blanc. My Dad had a cocktail when he came home from work every evening. In the 80s I was a fan of Jadot Pouilly Fuisse and Freemark Abbey Cab Sauv but it had nothing to do with my folks.

My parents offered us wine and beer pretty often growing up, but I always said no because I didn’t want to drink (looking back, what a waste of opportunity to learn!). I had an okay Valpolicella one Christmas a couple years ago (at 19/20) and that wine could smell and taste like something other than grape juice was eye-opening.

I was the one who introduced wine to my parents. I even remember a New Year’s Eve party (I was in junior high), and there was no wine–not even bubbly (no chance that it would be vrai Champagne) for a toast at midnight.

The only wine I shared with my parents while growing up was during communion at church.

Manischewitz with the Passover Seder.

Lancer’s and Mateus were staples at our house. Mom kept a 3 liter bottle of Gallo Hearty Burgundy under the kitchen sink near dishwashing liquid and cleaning supplies–she had a glass or two nightly till it was gone–she never commented re oxidation. Sometimes I am jealous–her pleasure with a shit wine was often more than mine is w a great wine since I tend to look for defects and be critical. It wasn’t till I was on my own that I started learning about fine wine.

I think it was to ensure I would never drink again, but that first glass of wine was Mogen David when I was about 12.

Alan,
I used to buy high end wines like Mateus and Lancer’s to take to dinner at friends houses in my 20’s

I don’t remember my parents ever drinking wine. They certainly never had any in the house.

I made some good choices for friends when I went off to college who introduced me to wine.

My mom would throw her empties at me.

I grew up in Marin County in the 70s and toured many vineyards in neighboring Sonoma and Napa with my parents. I have had a taste for fine wines ever since.

No one in my family introduced me to wine. I just sort of picked it up and then starting reading books and trying different wines.

No parents involved. Sounds like a common theme for many. Wife (then girlfriend) took me to a couple tastings. I was pretty much a beer guy. Thought it would suck but ended up catching the bug. Retirement fund still pissed.

My parents didn’t drink. If they had company (my mother did serious family style cooking) they’d serve whatever the local wine shop said was good, at whatever low price they specified.

Relatively inexpensive (like Moet White Star etc.) French Champagne was very special and celebratory and exciting. Red and white still wines were irrelevant, rum was king with the sailors and cocktails with everyone else. Port was something that was like a forbidden pleasure, it was deemed the be all and end all but no one drank it because it gave you gout.