The Grape Journey

Being a winemaker automatically makes me an expert on wine, right? Nothing could be further from the truth…it just gives me a unique opportunity to work every day with something that holds a certain mystique and romance to many people. The wine I make is just a microcosm to what goes on in the winemaking world. With close to 7000 wineries, just in the US alone, and over 5000 grape varieties in the world, there is always something new and interesting to learn about wine. Having said that, and because of what I do for a living, perhaps I can provide some interesting insight to those interested, and maybe enough information to help start understanding the many nuisances of wine. In turn, hopefully this can open up a new world for some, enhancing the wine experience and lead to more questions and exploring as much as we can about wine.

Many times throughout the day in the tasting room, I’m asked, “What wine would you suggest” or “I’m not a wine connoisseur, what should I like.” I can certainly tell people about the wine, how’s it made or how to use all their senses in tasting wine, but the think I can’t do is tell them if they like the wine or not. That is purely a personal decision based on a moment in time. That to me is the most beautiful and truly amazing experience about tasting wine…is that is should be a personal epiphany every time you take a sip of what writer Robert Louis Stevenson called “bottled poetry.”

Hopefully, through future posts I can provide some interesting and entertaining tidbits of information that will be helpful long the journey of discovering the wonderful world of wine. A journey that will undoubtedly hold some incredible new experiences, and create even more of a thirst to understand wine and all the wonders it holds.