Simple question. Curious as to know if you believe that your participation in the ‘thing of ours’ has had any significant ‘good’ influence in your life?
I say yes. I have met some great people, eaten some very decent meals and laughed out loud quite a bit, and it has nothing to do with being drunk. I have met talented and passionate winemakers, drank wines I could never imagine having access to thanks to the generosity of some of these folk.
Mostly, I have made very friends along the way (and lost a few too) but overall I would say wine has been good for me since I started on the journey 32 short years ago. I consider myself lucky to have it.
If you read my comments and nod to yourself because you have been part of all this, I thank you.
If you still have me on IGNORE and can’t read one bit, these’s always next year…
I’m hard pressed to imagine who is going to say “No” to this, other than maybe someone who became a serious alcoholic and had that ruin his life, and that poor soul probably isn’t still on here posting.
Wow. That’s an interesting question, one that I don’t confidently have an answer to. If there wasn’t wine in my life, could I find something to do with the extra time spent chasing down wines, learning more about them, responding to things like this on WB - yeah, I probably could. Could I find something to do with the money I saved without wine in my life - yep. Would those alternatives provide more or less satisfaction? I really don’t know. I’m solidly in the “not quite sure” camp.
Or the person who has a wine hobby that has become a source of friction between themselves and their significant other. Thankfully not my situation, but it would be easy enough to imagine.
I treasure the friendships I’ve made through wine. Some of my closest friends are people I’ve met through this hobby. I also love the fact that I can travel to basically any city for work and there will be someone to drink wine with.
What I hate is the outrageous amount of money I’ve spent on wine. There is certainly some friction with my wife in regards to wine spending as she doesn’t drink wine. Would my life be better without wine? I don’t think so, but would it be worse? I’m not entirely sure either.
It’s a hobby. A great one, and I’ve made great friendships from this common bond. But in the end, if I wasn’t into wine (or beer and spirits), my life would go on without any real detriment. My bank account would be bigger and my liver would probably be healthier, but I would miss the dinners and offlines I attend on a regular basis.
As to the bank account thing, I spend waaay too much on wine like most of you, but we’d all spend it on something else if we didn’t obsess over wine. I’ll repost the joke I posted on here awhile back:
Civilian: How many bottles of wine do you buy per year?
Wine Geek: Usually about 250
Civilian: How much do you pay per bottle on average?
Wine Geek: About $40
Civilian: And how long have you been collecting wine?
Wine Geek: About 20 years, I suppose.
Civilian: So a bottle costs $40 and you buy 250 bottles a year, which puts your spending per year at approximately $10,000. Correct?
Wine Geek: Correct
Civilian: If in one year you spend $10,000, not accounting for inflation, the past 20 years puts your spending at $200,000, correct?
Wine Geek: Correct
Civilian: Do you know that if you didn’t buy so much wine and such expensive wine, that money could have been put in a step-up interest savings account and after accounting for compound interest for the past 20 years, you could have now bought a new Ferrari?
Wow, interesting results, a lot more mixed than I was expecting (unless it’s just the time of year …). Like Chris I was expecting a clean sweep of yeses and few comments.
Following wine like most on WBs do takes a significant amount of time and financial commitment. Just a personal view but I could not imagine doing it unless I totally loved it (which I do).
I myself do not consider this a hobby, it’s more a lifestyle choice. I have enough hobbies collecting dust. I find that if I purchase a book for my collection, I eagerly await its delivery, to which I quickly place it into my old bookcase. Sure, it feels good knowing I own it, but really–where’s the fun!
Wine is nothing more than a beverage that incites lively conversation, periodic disagreement, & even some harmless self effacing comedic relief from time to time. It can be food for thought even when food for your belly is present.
My problem is that although I have drunk a lot of different wines I really only like a handful. Which means there are a lot of wines I would still rather not drink. But the only way to know is to buy them and try them. Which is costly. Plus the following year may not be great. Some people want to experiment but I’m finding it to be a bit much.
Mike - you know my answer. For the same reasons you list.
Joe - go to tastings as often as you can and figure out what you like. And even the occasional wine you don’t like is often interesting for one reason or another. I have a lot of wines that I like but I’m always interested in trying something new that I’ve never tried before. That’s part of the fun actually - every year is a new adventure and there are so many places producing wine that it never gets boring. I’ve spent time in Bordeaux drinking real crap poured by a guy with the second-worst halitosis I ever experienced, but it was still worth it. A wonderful blond chick told me she’d be my personal guide next time I came and I had some great dinners and I learned a lot.
Sticking to the same old same old is like having the same dinner night after night after night. Why do that?
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