I’ve never liked grape juice. Even as a child I couldn’t see its appeal. This lasted until I learned the word wine.
As a child my parents would allow my brother and I what my mother described as “just tipple of wine” on special occasions. The tiny glasses at our table setting would be barely filled with either a pale yellow or garnet liquid. I remember taking the tiniest sips from my glass, feeling quite mature at the ripe old age of five or six. I also remember thinking I couldn’t wait until I was older as there was something in my mind telling me I would eventually enjoy the wine in my glass.
We were never given a full glass, only a “tipple”. Still, the few sips I had left me with the impression that the wine was either bitter or “harsh” in its taste. These perceptions may have been due to my immature palette (I was a child after all), yet I managed to “enjoy” the experience.
Throughout my teenage years to early thirties, I had no interest in wine. It wasn’t the forbidden fruit my friends saw it as during our teens. It simply had no appeal. Then something changed in my late thirties when I went out to dinner one evening: I could smell black pepper, chocolate and red berries in the glass of wine served with my meal. I could not understand what was happening.
The waiter confirmed that I was fine and had indeed smelled the scents I described. He briefly explained some of the other notes (aka ‘scents’) that might be present in my glass of cabernet sauvignon. That moment, that conversation lit a spark renewing my interest in wine.
With more glass swirling, sniffing and sipping of various wines over the next few years, I remained unable to satisfy my curiosity with this fruit, this drink. In fact, it has led to a lot of reading and exploration of wine related topics, and now writing about it.
And I hope you will join me in my musings about all things wine by subscribing to this blog.
(Photo Credit: SJ Gabriel)