My experiences with wine before starting this class have mostly consisted of not drinking it. I previously considered wine as something I didn’t like categorically. I grew up in the Episcopal church and went every Sunday for most of my childhood. There I was exposed to communion wine, which I disliked. Aside from this, I haven’t tried wine much over the years. I’ve occasionally tried the various red wine’s my parents drink with dinner or sparkling white wine on New Year’s or during other celebrations, but I rarely got further than a sip.
However, through this course I hope to expand my palate and learn to appreciate wine more. I want to learn more about the extensive varieties of wine in the world, and find one’s that I do like. I also hope to learn how to describe wine in more detailed and accurate ways, so that when I find a wine I like I can find more similar wine’s in the future. Additionally, I hope to learn more about how to pair wine with food to accentuate the flavors and mouth-feels that I enjoy in them.
Last week I participated in my first wine tasting with my friends for this class, during which we tried a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir, a Vin Chocolat Noir, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. My opinions on each varied, but it was fun to discuss them and try to pin down the specific flavors and feels of each wine. In my limited experience so far, I tend to favor wines that are fruiter and sweeter and less dry. I find white wines more palatable overall than red wines, due to the higher dryness of the red wines that I’ve tried, but I find that the overall background taste of white wine to be less appealing than red wine. Additionally, I don’t tend to enjoy sparkling white wine as it accentuates the flavors in white wine that I dislike. The Vin Chocolat Noir wine was the most intriguing wine I tried that night as I’d never had a dessert wine so far, and I’m still not sure whether or not I liked it.
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