Wine, And Drinking It

There is something to be said and admired for people that devote their entire life to tasting, pairing, viticulture, and anything else that has to do with wine in general. You get these amazingly knowledgeable people who can tell you everything down to the cell structure of the different varietals, or can tell you what year and vineyard a certain wine was made. To some this may look like an immense talent worthy of praise and idolization, but does this mean that they enjoy wine more than the average drinker?

One of the things about wine professionals and enthusiasts alike is, whether they choose to admit it or not, that taking this path of fascination with wine leads to snobbery (or as I so lovingly call them, Snooties). Now, their entire social/professional life may in fact revolve around wine, but this certainly does not equate into being able to enjoy something more or less than the average drinker. Sure, being able to dive into the intricacies and different flavors in a glass of wine is a wonderful experience that usually takes years to develop. But there are just as many people, if not more, that can take a bottle of the cheapest wine on the shelf and enjoy it like it was a 40 year old Bordeaux. Even more amusing is the fact that they won’t swirl it around in their glass, stick their nose to the bottom of the glass and sniff until the wine comes out their ears, or anything else along those lines. They will simply open the bottle, pour, and drink. While this may be throwing a great majority of my studies and fascination with wine aside, I think that is the enjoyment that we should all strive for. No ceremony, just enjoyment.

This past week I visited a local wine boutique and took part in a tasting of a California Vineyard. I will admit that the wines were over-oaked, and because of that I was not able to enjoy them as much as I would a “better made” wine. Then in the middle of the first glass I stopped myself and realized I was starting to think like 95% of all other wine professionals. out there. I have seen self-righteous Sommeliers have beautiful bottles of wine poured out, while by my standards I thought the wine was perfectly drinkable. With that in mind I stopped myself, looked at the wine again, smelled it, drank it, and focused solely on the positive qualities of the wine. The Chardonnay tasted like a slightly lemony buttery piece of toast, which by traditional standards means the wine is not of the best quality. Instead of dwelling on that, and realizing this will be the holy grail of all wines to some people, I went to pairing it to different food. So, it tastes like buttery toast, what goes well with that? French toast, sweeter foods, maybe a lemon piccatta chicken plate, etc... I did this for all 6 of the wines, and although I did not enjoy the wines immensely, I learned a lot more about wine in the practical sense in that hour than I have in months of schooling. So, what does this have to do with anything? By golly I will tell you.

No matter what your experience in life, there will be wines you come across that you don’t like. It’s a sad inevitability that you can either take stride, or be snooty about and throw a fit. There will always be wines that have no use at all and need to be laid to rest, but if you think hard enough you can make use of the more manageable ones without too much effort. Match the flavors with other foods, use them for cooking, “accidentally” spill them on Snooties clothing with a kind-hearted “My bad.” afterwards, or drink a lot of other things first so when you come back to this wine it tastes like heaven... or you are too far gone to care. In the end, when you have a glass of wine you can go about it a few ways. You can stand ceremony, swirl the wine, sniff it, roll it over your palate making silly noises, and with nose lifted high make a studied comment about it. There is also the halfway version of that, which shares a lot of the same steps, just without the nose lift. But, there is also the way that I have seen so many people take part in. This might be in bowls instead of cups, from the bottle passed among friends at a big party, with a mug of hot cocoa right next it, or with a silly straw that runs around your entire neck. It is a method that we should all strive for no matter our training, experience, opinions, or knowledge.

Open the bottle, pour, and drink.