Vine Speak

Last Updated on Thursday, 03 December 2009 20:03 By Heather Muhleman Thursday, 03 December 2009 19:20

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For the Love of Wine

As I search through my bottles of wine for that perfect bottle to go with London broil, I think, “Wow, I have a lot of wine.” The statement begs the question of why.” The answer, of course, is “I love wine,” which morphs back to why. Why do I love wine?

The question lingered and I thought deeper. Is it a choice to like wine? Or did “wine choose me,” as Wine Bible author Karen MacNeil said? It was a delicious idea that fate brought me to wine but what is it about wine that gets people interested, excited and hooked?

I asked people around me – friends, family, people in the wine business and sometimes complete strangers. I drank up the answers. One somewhat common thread I found was the “epiphany wine.” That’s the bottle that got you hooked, got you wanting more, got you obsessed with learning all that you can.

Some drank for a purpose -

“Wine is delicious, interesting, historical, and healthful for the body and soul. It is part of our cultural legacy, and [can] mark the milestones of our lives.” – John Ciambrano, sommelier (epiphany wine - 1985 Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet from Domaine Leflaive).

“Every culture has a history with wine. It pushes away the language barrier; it goes beyond cultural differences.” – Megan Shaw, Duckhorn tasting hostess (epiphany wine - 1999 Elderton Shiraz Command).

Others drank wine because it was handy -

“Going to school in the Finger Lakes meant that Happy Hour happened at the wineries.” Bret Jenkins, harvest cellar intern at MacRostie Winery (epiphany wine - Nicholini cabernet).

“I got into wine by getting into beer (since) I worked at a brewery. I made my way to Napa, California, and ate at Brix: smoked rabbit with kumquat gastrique paired with Orin Swift's The Prisoner. From that moment on, I knew that my calling was in wine.” – Mark Brown, harvest worker at Ladera Vineyards.

And in the end, some of their words spoke far louder than mine:

“It warms me up, makes me feel grown up and flirts with me. I love the moment in the night when someone goes to get another bottle. It always means that we are not quite done with each other yet and there is still so much to say.” – Ilona Siller, friend and fellow wine drinker (epiphany wine: “It was big and French.” My guess is it was a Bordeaux).

My initial answer to the question was “Wine tastes good.” Then I thought about how I cringed the first time I drank it. After more soul searching, I realized that wine helped turn my family’s humdrum dinners into marathon sessions of enjoying each other’s company. My father would make me try the wine, and while I cringed at first, it was amazing to me that each bottle tasted different. Wine eventually became a catalyst for conversations about life, family and happiness. In my older years, I realize that wine still has this effect on dinners. We linger longer, we talk deeper and we appreciate greater. My epiphany wine? A 1995 Clos la Gaffeliere, a grand cru from St. Emilion in Bordeaux that I picked up driving through France the summer after I graduated high school. We drank it as my celebration wine when I graduated from college and I knew it was the beginning of something great.

This holiday season is the perfect time to explore the issue by yourself or with loved ones. Why do you like wine? Why do you drink the wines that you do? Bring the conversation to your holiday tables. I guarantee that you’ll find some intriguing answers. Drink what you like and explore things you don’t know.

And as always ... cheers to amazing wine.