Wines of the World
PO Box 36330
Denver, CO 80236
Phone 1-888-827-8484 (1-888-TASTINGS)
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``Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it."Anonymous
X Spurts.
Why is it that everyone and his unemployed brother is an expert on all beverages, alcoholic - except wine? I mean, when’s the last time you stopped into your favorite overpriced restaurant and asked them to send over the “beer expert” so you could discuss which year of Coors you were going to order?
Okay, okay. For you wine experts – there’s a difference between types, years and regions of wines. There’s also a difference in the years, types and regions of Scotch, but how many people, (other, perhaps, than your Uncle Hootie) do you know who make their living hanging out at (fill in the name of the restaurant) advising diners on their choice of Scotch. My objection is that choosing and enjoying wines should be simplified, not complicated, by those with some experience and expertise.
Definitions.
It stands to reason that everyone has to be on the same page if they hope to communicate.
So it is with wine. It is at least useful, if not important, to have some basic common understandings.
Take the word sommelier. What exactly is a sommelier? Well, first, a sommelier is someone who has spent a great many hours studying the colors, bouquets, aromas and compositions of wine. Unfortunately, sommeliers may also be the only people in the world that, not only know what cassis is, smells and tastes like, but the only ones who care. Second, for many sommeliers the technical complexities of wine are what they find attractive (not to mention it gives them a chance to show off). My point is, perhaps, we don’t have to ask complete strangers about something as simple and straightforward as the fermented juice of a grape. I say this for good reason. Unlike many parts of the world, most places in the good old US of A have drinkable, if not palatable water. We therefore never had to substitute wine for water (pity!).
So, while the French were growing up sipping while they supped, we were slurping H2O and our palates were never schooled in vin pays versus Premier Gran Cru (truth be told not a lot of French schoolchildren were running around sipping Premier Gran Cru either, but at least they might have sampled something more upscale than vin ordinaire). Many Americans have never learned that wine, unlike either beer or Scotch, is more food than beverage! Think about the many uses of wine in cooking. At a minimum, wine is similar to the herbs and spices we use when we cook. Once you make that distinction, whether fermented grape juice has overtones of rich leather or just the subtle hint of the aroma of newly mown grass or not becomes much less important than whether you find including wine in your meals to be a real pleasure.
It doesn’t take a lifetime of exposure to wine, the often overpriced experience of what is “popular” nor the advice of a restaurant wine professional, to learn to appreciate, enjoy and distinguish among many well priced, tasty representatives of “le grape” from around the world.
It’s not that sommeliers don’t know a lot about wine. It’s that too few seem to take joy in that knowledge. Many seem more bent on parading what they know. Above all else, wine and the knowledge of wine should be shared and enjoyed with pleasure and happiness, not some high falutin’ nonsense. (It is only fermented grape juice after all).
Hopefully, as we continue our journey through wines, their myths and their mysteries, we can all be better for our introduction to “the nectar of the gods”.
Salud!
The Cellarmaster at
Reds N Whites
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