My History With Wine

Do you remember how you first became acquainted with wine? Did it start with TV commercials, the Bartle’s & James, “Thank you for your support”? Or the “We will sell no wine before it’s time”?

Like most, my alcohol consumption started out with beer. It was what my friends drank and who wants to be different when you’re young? The beginnings of my wine interest began when I overheard the host at a party talk about a wine they had recently tried. I noticed a more expanded variety of wine on my local store shelves. I checked out the clear and reddish colored liquid in the bottles. The names Merlot and Chianti didn’t mean anything to me, but I picked up a red with an interesting label and got a cork screw. When I got home I poured out a glass and took a swig. I quickly set down that glass and backed away. It was horrible! Was it me? I recorked and put that bottle way back in the fridge. Why would ANYONE drink that stuff?? Didn’t I hear that wine gets better with age? I’ll wait.

So I stuck with beer and was happy. But occasionally I would check out the wine department and buy a bottle with an interesting label. This would result in sometimes finding an okay variety or what I figured was wasted money and time. Then I met Julie. On one of our dates she ordered a glass of Riesling and encouraged me to take a sip. I was anxious about what kind of reaction I was going to have but decided it was worth the risk. The taste was very pleasant, so much different that what I had experienced. One of her favorite wines then was called Frost Fire from Breitenbach Winery located in Dover, Oh. I also enjoyed that so much we decided to look for similar types of wines. Together we went to tastings at wine festivals and we drove to some local wineries. At that time the cost was only about 25 cents per sample. Some we liked and some we didn’t. But we always tried to taste a variety.

Slowly I began to open up my palette. Eventually I started to enjoy some of the wines that I had so disliked before. I even had more confidence in stating what I enjoyed about a wine.

Don’t be shy in your tasting. Try all varieties and find out what you really enjoy. It’s not what’s popular. Trust your own palette and thank the Lord there are so many out there to enjoy!
~ Clay and Julie