Some
history...
Sometimes people ask me how I became interested in wine, so here's the story:
I went to my first wine tasting event when I was 25. To that point, wine
had been something nice to drink with dinner or when out with friends. I
felt so grown-up and sophisticated when I bought alcohol and paired it with my
meals according to those basic rules of red goes with meat, white with fish. By
that time, contrary to the fears of family and friends that I would starve on
my own, I had learned to cook, and I loved putting together big, fancy weekend
dinners. Learning more about wine was something I had always wanted to
do, but had never gotten the chance or time.
We hadn't intended to go to the North Georgia Wine Festival. My
then-boyfriend, now husband, and I had rented a cabin with some of my graduate
school friends in Helen, a cute imitation German town in the North Georgia
Mountains. After a day of tubing, avoiding wildlife on the roads -- who
knew that snakes could fold themselves in thirds to go between a car's wheels?
-- and trying to figure out who ate the last of the cheese puffs again, we
decided to wander to Habersham Winery, where my family had bought wine
before. We found the festival in progress, paid $15, were issued glasses,
and let loose.
At that point, we had a choice. We could be like some of the others with
their "Sweet! Fifteen bucks for all you can drink, and you get a
glass!" attitude or we could get into the spirit of the event and actually
try the wines as potential consumers. Hubby and I did, and we found that
hey, there were big differences in nose, taste, and what we perceived then as
quality. We also found that we had compatible tastes in wine, always a
good thing when you're thinking about committing to a person for life.
That was the point at which my love of wine was born. Thanks to other
excursions and adventures as well as the biweekly wine tastings at JavaMonkey,
I have developed my preferences.
Ten
years later, this hobby has brought me to California, Oregon, and Washington
state as well as some unexpected wine tasting places like Virginia, Maryland,
and even Arkansas. I really need to get back to the North Georgia
Mountains for a serious tasting trip sometime soon.