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- Skeeter - 12-23-2003
Okay, so I had a quiet night a work a while back. And to pass the time, I decided to run my mouth (In written form) about the noble grape. (I was toying with the idea of sending it to a local food and wine magazine.) I still may, but here's what I wrote for you guys (and gals) to preview. Constructive critisim is welcome, of course. [img]http://38.118.142.245/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
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"What ya reading?"
One of my workmates holds up a book, written in Chinese.
"It's a love story."
I hold up my copy of Cuisine Magazine, open to the yearly Sauvingnon Blanc tasting.
"So's mine."
My colleagues have been known to call me the "Wine Wanker in Training". It's a name I quite happily take as a compliment. I love wine. I love to shop for it, I love to read about it, I love to talk about it. And yes, I love to taste it. It wasn't always so. Before 1997, not a drop of vino passed my lips, excepting a sip or two of champagne at Christmas or a wedding. Beer, whiskey and Southern Comfort were my drinks of choice, usually consumed in a smoky, noisy Irish bar in the early hours when Saturday night blearily became Sunday morning. But it was at a birthday dinner at a Chinese resturant in West Auckland that things changed. I accepted a glass of wine from my future father-in-law Jim... a glass that soon became half a bottle. Six years later, I can still remember the wine, a 1997 Marlborough Sauvingnon Blanc from Souljans Estate, then located in the industrial section of Henderson. Later that week, I brought the final remaining bottle of the vintage they had in stock. And the love affair had begun.
It was a cautious start, though. A trip to Australia later that year included three days in the Hunter Valley, the time both relaxing and educational. A dozen carefully-selected bottles accompained us home, with several vanishing into Jims basement cellar, re-appearing at intervals over the next few years. Subsequent trips across the Tasman included van tours in the Tamar and Barossa Valleys, a re-visiting of the Hunter and plenty of wine with some excellent meals. Dinner at a Thai resturant in Sydney was instrumental in kick-starting my love of reisling. The concept of wine and food matching was driven home to me in Surfers Paradise, as I timidly accepted the head chefs recommendation of a glass of red wine with my Steak Diane. (Still convinced I "didn't like reds".) The resulting meal knocked that concept on its ear slightly. (Although it would be several more years before I purchased my first actual bottle of red wine.)
At home I began to take notice of the wealth of local wineries. The Hunter Valley was several thousand kilometers removed, but Keumu was no more than twenty minutes drive from my door. My wife and I had our three-day honeymoon at the cottages of the Matua Valley Winery, and I spent the day after ceremony doing.. what else? Wine tasting, of course. (My new bride sadly, spent the day recovering from the worst head-cold in the universe, having willed it into submission for the wedding day itself.) I began to denude the shelves of the Waitakere Library System, devouring books on wine the way I used to charge through the works of Stephen King. And now, as 2003 draws to a close, I have drawn the following conclusions.
Read the books. Absorb the opinions of others.
Then ignore them. Or at the very least, treat them as just that. Opinions. As a wise man said once, opinions are like backsides. Everyones got one.
Sample. Experiment. Form your own opinions. Take the scores of professional wine writers as guidelines, not gospel. Wine is probably the most subjective thing in the world today. A sauvingnon blanc I'd crawl across broken glass for might leave you cold. You might prefer a five-buck bottle of shiraz to a bottle with medals and tropheys up the wazoo. Whose opinion is correct? Yours is, of course. So is mine. So is that guy with the glass of Chateau du Cardboard. (Or the two Buck Chuck.) I'm no more qualified to tell you what wine to drink than a nightclub bouncer is qualified to judge my fashion sense. (And, much like bouncers, this doesn't stop wine bores from doing exactly that.)
Let your palate develop at its own pace. I still get the giggles at times when reading tasting notes, constantly amazed at the bewildering array of tases and aromas that others find in a humble glass of fermented grapejuice. (At a blind tasting recently, I nearly sprayed chardonnay across the room after the man next to me found 'Brylcreem'. Another wine garned suggestions of an entire fruit salad full of everything imaginable... except grapes, of course.) I wouldn't know the scent of a lychee if you hit me forcefully with a tin of them and I'm not in the habit of smelling cigar boxes or the forest floor. But eventually you'll suddenly amaze yourself as a scent or a taste leaps from the glass. One day you might be to tell the difference between grape varieties by smell. Eventually, you may not even need that. I surprised the hell out of myself recently by pouring a glass of wine for a customer, then pulling up short after I realised I'd grabbed a chardonnay, rather than a sauvingnon blanc... and I'd picked up on this soley because of the COLOUR of the wine!
Meet like-minded indivuals. Go to wine-tastings. I learnt more from my first blind tasting than I would have from a dozen books, and met some fun, friendly people to boot. Jump on the 'Net, look up wines sites, read the messages and Tasting Notes on various message boards. Arrange wine trails for your workmates, have Bring-a-Bottle tasting nights. Chat with the staff of specialty wine stores if they're not too busy. Hit the tasting rooms at wineries both large and small. Talk to the staff if THEY'RE not too busy.
Take notes. My earliest tasting notes were filled with comments like "I'd drink that", "Not really me" and "Neeh". They still are. At first, I scrawled them on the back of EFT-POS reciepts, then found them crumpled in the pockets of a freshly-washed pair of jeans. I jotted them in an old notebook, which I promptly lost. Now I own a pocket-sized tasting notebook, filling it with my semi-legible script. Have favourite wines, but always be prepared to try something new. If you like it, make a note of it. Tell your friends. Hell, tell ME!
And finally, and most importantly....
Enjoy your wine. That's the point of it, after all.
- tandkvd - 12-23-2003
Good job Skeeter, from this novices point of view that is very good advice for new wine lovers.
- winoweenie - 12-23-2003
LIB there Skeets ole' cock, ole' bean. About as solid advice as a new wine lover could obtain....shucks even BUY! Well done. WW
- Thomas - 12-23-2003
Good stuff Skeet--I suppose I'll hang up my keyboard now for a new generation of wine writing.
Just one critique: don't submit it until ww proof reads it for typos...
- sedhead - 12-23-2003
I liked the style of your writing because I did not feel I was being preached to or lectured at.
I've been drinking wine on and off in one form or the other for over fifty years. I grew up in a 2nd generation Italian American family.
I still consider myself a novice mainly because I did not put in the effort you did to go beyond the "I know what I like" level until realatively recently.
Thanks for the post and have a good holiday.
- Skeeter - 12-23-2003
Thanks for the feedback, guys. It probably needs a lettle fleshing out, but I'm happy with it for a starter...
Now... more research! *pop* [img]http://38.118.142.245/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]