Winotaku
Wine is as diverse, exciting, compelling, soulful and so forth as music. “What is the meaning of your music hobby?” That’s an absurd question. After we’re born and take our first breaths, what is the meaning of our breathing hobby?
Please don’t be defensive trying to devalue it. You’re scratching the surface now. There must be a deeper meaning why are you so much into wine. What fuels your engine here? What is the purpose of your passion? Which specific goal you are trying to achieve with it?
There might be as many answers as there are people in wine. Would be interesting to hear yours.
And as for breathing, that might be the survival which is the purpose.
for me its…
- Learning about the different wine regions, the history and the producers
- I love tasting wine (I actually dislike the intoxication)
- Amassing a killer collection of wines for the future as well as some for my kids, if I ever get married.
- I also enjoy opening and sharing wines with my friends hoping some of them will eventually share my passion. Sadly that has yet to happen.
When I moved to SW France in the 80s, I wasn’t really a wine drinker, so it was about understanding the local culture since Bordeaux and Madiran were being produced an hour’s drive away. In the local supermarkets I was faced with a wall of wine about which I hadn’t a clue - so I learnt. I got hooked immediately by the taste, the mouthfeel, the effortless class of mature Bordeaux, but also the incredible variety of tastes from one appellation to another. Little by little I learnt about the history, the changing traditions, and the importance of terroir combined with winemaking ability. Things got spoiled by a well-meaning but over-bearing wine critic, along with the increased focus on the region that he created, leading to a spiral of higher prices, uniform taste, too much oak and alcohol, etc. So I branched out into other regions instead.
Wine is a passion, a never-ending discovery of new tastes - which is the big difference with beer or spirits, for example: you never know what you’re going to get when you open a bottle of wine, because it is alive, it evolves, it changes, sometimes for better sometimes for worse. The unpredictability can be incredibly frustrating, but incredibly rewarding. Forty years ago wine critics didn’t exist - today, we all like to know whether a bottle is going to be good or bad - but whether we read a magazine or fellow amateurs’ notes on CT, it’s just as futile - because not only does wine change, but we all have different palates. And those palates change. “One size fits all” is a fundamental misunderstanding of what wine is about - it’s not Gordon’s Gin or Jim Beam.
So it can be a minefield, but one thing has changed for the better over the last forty years - wine is much better made than before. Winemaking fads and fashions can be irritating, but the number of really bad bottles has never been lower.
Increased demand and prices has led to the opening-up of new regions all over the world, with new tastes and new traditions, and even in the Old World, climate change (despite its long-term perils) has re-opened regions which had stopped producing wine in the Middle Ages. Well-established regions are enjoying a new lease of life - the Loire, for example, has never enjoyed such a run of fine vintages as it has since 2014.
So all in all, there has never been a better time to enjoy wine. My wine hobby has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life and I hope that I succeed in passing the baton to my children (along with a few bottles!).
Thank you Julian for sharing your personal story. I find it fascinating and fully agree with what you have just said. That resonates with me a lot.
I like to have long, slow dinners with friends where we enjoy deeply a few wines. Wines are keys into these memories that I make with people I care about. Scientists talk about how the smell is tied into the hippocampus, which is the seat of memory in the brain, and the smell of a certain wines will summon for me the memory of certain friends. Sometimes there will be unexpected associations and accords, which I value. Ultimately the wines are not so much the point, as the means to a pleasurable end. Hope this helps 
This…and every unopened bottle is a future experience, to be anticipated, and each with an element of mystery and chance about it (“like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get”). Then there is an element of “solving a puzzle” in terms of trying to gauge the right bottle to open at the right time, with the right food, the right people and you’re personal mood.
I think appreciation, pleasure and enjoyment are perfectly legitimate “purposes” for someone to do something. When I go on vacation, I do so for the “purpose” of relaxing, enjoying, having fun, and with respect to some vacations for the “purpose” of having no purpose (other than enjoying).
I’m in it for the buzz.
Thus my analogy to music. Think about it more. It’s pretty clear with your snarky response you haven’t (and you’re the one being defensive of your absurdly phrased question here.)
I use it to meet chicks
Huh?
I didn’t mean to be snarky here. My apologies if it felt this way. I sensed you were judging when calling my question an absurd one. It seems like you didn’t understand the question and I tried to expand.
I take your analogy with music, that’s fine.
I felt like you were denying that music (wine) as a hobby might have a meaning. Would you consider such hobby meaningless? Just following your advice and trying to think about it more.
Stas, for me, fine wine is an elixir, a gift from the gods to make human existence more endurable, comfortable, richer on experience, and longer…
I like wine, especially aged wine.
or
A wine cellar is a sophisticated alcoholic’s way of protecting their supply of alcohol
take your pick, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
For me it has been the joy of meeting and building friendships with a ton of great people who share the same “hobby” or who partake in the production and sales side of the industry.
I turned my wine hobby into my wine career because it combined the following things that I love:
- Nature
- History
- Art
- Science
- Working with my hands to create something
There are very few things in this world that incorporate all of the above so well.
Wine is a pleasant diversion for me.
If I feel like getting buzzed, wine is there for me and is easy to titrate.
If I want to feel like a discerning oenophile, I can head down the geeky path.
If I feel like conversation, but not about anything really important, I can chat about wine. Or, if I don’t want to have any conversation at all, I can start talking about how the current vintage of whatever is being drunk compares to all the other vintages of that wine and who made it and how much time it spends on oak, etc… ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
If I have too much money on hand, wine helps with that, too. If I have too little money on hand, my cellar helps with that. (I’m basically a Fabulous Fury Freak Brother.)
It’s big fun, but not necessary or having essential ‘meaning’ to me. It ranks behind friends and family and my Hi Fi; but ahead of beer, spirits, other substances, and it may barely outrank margaritas, mai tais, and pina coladas. 
Wine is a good mascot for having fun, but not necessary to have fun, if that makes sense. It’s like that BASF commercial: wine doesn’t make dinner (usually,) it makes dinner better, so to speak. Wine doesn’t make people, it makes people seem more interesting. It doesn’t make the party, it makes the party better, sometimes.
Not a necessity, but a greatly appreciated luxury - a diversion from the work a day world.
Succinct and simple, well put. I enjoy experiences exploring my own tastes and perceptions as well as social interactions with others.
Every bottle offers a new and unique experience in that regard.
No meaning and no purpose
I agree with Wes, the question is strange.
I like wine. So I drink it. That’s all.
I like to read. I like chocolate. I like to garden. I like to travel. I like to visit friends. No deeper meaning to any of those either.