I’d like to hear how your partners/significant others fit into your wine world. Do they participate? How much? How do you handle the financing of your wine hobby/habit/obsession, in the context of your relationship?
Mine is actually an interesting (I think) story. My then girlfriend (now fiancee) had substantially more experience than me, growing up in a family that went to tastings, wine dinners, and wine country. She also had a second job pouring wines on the weekend, and so at first I was extremely intimidated by her wine knowledge.
I came from a family that had little interest in wine, and through my early adult life very few of my friends had interest in wine either. I had no interest myself until about 5 years ago, when she turned me onto it.
In fact I knew so little about wine that I’d open a bottle, have a glass, stick the cork back in, and then stick the bottle under my kitchen sink for a few weeks until I wanted more (gasp!). Perhaps because I was so intimidated I sought as much information/knowledge/experience as possible.
I got bitten by the bug, and so while we tried to share costs where we could, I found sometimes my desire to have the nicer bottle/case etc led to me shelling out a bit more than my share, which I had absolutely no problem with.
We found our palettes overlap nicely in most areas, but with a few big differences. We both love Pinot and Zin, for example, and while she shares my love of Loire whites it does not translate to the reds. I’m on my own for Riesling as well.
Over the years our roles have shifted a bit. My interest in wine has definitely passed hers, but her financial situation is more similar to mine now. This leaves me in a really great (but sometimes challenging) place in that she’ll split the cost of nearly all purchases so long as I can get her buy-in.
I don’t even bother asking her to pay for Loire reds or German Riesling; I just make those purchases/pickups when she’s not home.
What about you?