So, you love wine?
Or, do you love things about wine?
This is something I have been thinking about, on and off, for the last couple of years. And my answer to that is: I love all the things wine represent, more than wine itself.
This does not mean I don’t love drinking wine. I do – I really enjoy wine! 🙂
The thing about wine is that it is not just about the product itself, nor its consumption.
There is more to wine.
Oft-quoted is what Madame Lily Bollinger has to say about Champagne:
“I drink it when I am happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”
This gives us a clue as to what a vinous love affair is. Not addiction, but obsession.
More so for some than others.
It was only some years after I started learning about wine when I came to enjoy drinking it.
I caught the wine bug after moving to Adelaide to study many years ago. As it is an entirely new thing to me, I didn’t drink much to start with, but did read up a lot on it. At the beginning, it’s all about wanting to know more about this special drink that causes so many to wax lyrical about – everything from how it is made, the alluring aromas, the gripping tastes, and the romance that captures every wine lover.
After learning and reading much about wine, I would have to put things into perspective and try some myself. Living near world-renown regions (Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, and the Adelaide Hills) gave me the opportunity to visit cellar doors to taste, learn, and buy. But the tasting part is only a small portion of wine-related ‘stuffs‘ I do. I find myself spending much more time reading wine content, be it books, wine blogs, forums etc.. This, in turn, causes me to day-dream frequently of my next wine adventure. And there is my realisation: that my love is first and foremost in the romance surrounding wine, then the partaking of wine with people!
Wine should be enjoyed with friends, whether friends who know a lot or nothing about wine, as it is about sharing one’s passion for it.
To me, describing a wine is not just about accurate descriptors, but also about conveying the sense of romance (or lack of) the tasting brought about. And so, when I write about wines, I’ll portray the experience without too much use of descriptors, and look at the stories behind the wine, wine-maker, winery, even wine label. All these excite me very much.
So, the next time you enjoy a bottle of wine, consider the romance surrounding it, in addition to experiencing the beauty in the glass!
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Recently, we hosted a gathering for our group of (mostly expat) friends. It is a given that wine will be the lubricant for this social gathering, with each person contributing a bottle or 2. In this group, there are 3 of us who are quite serious about wine.
The beauty with such occasions is that you won’t know what wines you will be hit with, and this particular gathering turned into a mighty fine wine session.
We ended up enjoying 3 bottles of 1er cru Burgundies, a Chianti Classico Riserva, and a beautiful VINIV-made Bordeaux.
No tasting notes were taken (too busy eating and chatting), but this is just an example of what I love about wine – it is something to be enjoyed with friends, and sometimes without the need to get real serious when drinking that bottle of 1er cru Grand Vin de Bourgogne! 🙂
Cheers~!
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