Winederlust!

Traveling the world is the dream of many if not all. Sometimes we just come up short of meeting those goals and dreams. That's what I love about a nice glass of wine (or bottle depending on the day you had) because it allows for us to close our eyes, unwind and travel abroad using our senses of taste and smell. Wine is a ticket to different regions of the world. The rustic aromas of French Bordeaux or the cool breezy bite of an Australian Moscato take us to different sights.

Wine allows us to imagine ourselves in the vineyards where they were created; tasting the grapes from the soil in which they grew, smelling the environment which blossomed around. Wine is and should be more than a beverage. It should be an experience. Being such a young wine enthusiast myself, I realize I have much more to learn but the respect I have developed for such an in depth culture can never be surpassed. The complete dichotomy of science and nature creating such a blissful moment is amazing.

Wine is such a spectacular event because it is something so simple yet intrinsically complicated. Think about it; what is wine? It is the fermentation of grapes into an alcoholic beverage with little to no additive to this equation. This simple process however has managed to create thousands of wines with thousands different aromas and flavors. One thing I seem to encounter numerous times is the question of how does one find different flavors in wine. Many of my friends mock at the idea that one can taste raspberries or blueberries and mixtures of oak and chocolate in wine. The thing that I have learned is that tasting a wine comes with experience and also having a small understanding of the wine you're drinking. Wine tasting is an experience, one that should be taken with a grain of salt. Wine tasting should be done with a clear mind and the willingness to enjoy your time and open your senses to the environment and wine itself.