My wine journey...

I often talk with new wine tasters and encourage them to enjoy their wine journey. That inevitable path in which they start out only drinking sweet wines, 2 years later they are into big dry reds and hate chardonnay with a passion, head down that path 3 years later and you will find them proclaiming their love of all things Burgundian and drinking only Chablis. While everyone's path is different, I think all wine drinkers create their own trail as they explore the world of wine and their tastes change with time and circumstance. If they are sophisticated wine drinkers, they will enjoy all of the stops along the way.

Today I wanted to share my more literal wine journey, my path into and through the wine industry.

When I started my wine journey, I wasn't quite 21 but my roomates father brought us a case of Beringer White Zinfandel as a housewarming gift at our first apartment. When he dropped it off he said, to "Come talk to me when the case is gone, then I will tell you about real wine." After knocking on every neighbors door looking for a wine key, we finally made our way into the first bottle and let's just say, it didn't take long for us to head back over to her dad's house to "talk about real wine".

Also around this time, I started dating a nice guy with an Italian family. In their kitchen I learned meal time was more than the canned green beans and shake and bake chicken that my mom sustained our family on.

This family made dinner an event, champagne and appetizers when we got to their house, a table set with matching china, a different pattern each time we came! Their dinners were paired thoughtfully with a bottle of wine, and that bottle of wine usually came with a story about where they were when they bought it or where they tasted it for the first time. Dinner was a ritual and wine was an important part of that ritual.

One afternoon, this boyfriend and I were on our way home from a date and saw a vineyard from the road. We flipped a u-turn, followed the drive and found ourselves at a small winery tasting room. During the course of the tasting, I asked how the host learned so much about wine and she said, she learned it while working there. I asked for an application, and as I filled it out, I altered the course of my life.

I had been on track to finish school with a Liberal Studies degree with a focus on Literature and writing with plans to teach English to middle schoolers. Instead, I started working in that tasting room and never finished my student teaching. To this day, I think I dogged a bullet on that one...

While in that tasting room in Southern California, I walked the vineyards with their winemaker. Leon Santori, was from Italy and spent his early career making award winning wines at Stags Leap in Napa. He would take the time and walk me through the vineyards explaining the viticulture and how it shaped his winemaking. One afternoon, a journalist arrived in the tasting room to interview Mr. Santori and after chatting with them for a few minutes while we waited for Leon, the opportunity arose for me to intern with their wine magazine. After school and between shifts at the tasting room I helped create content, edited articles and helped with photoshoots. While the experience was short lived, and nothing remains from my work in that pre-digital age, the experience sparked in me the idea that my work in the wine industry could lead to more.

I developed the modest dream of a twenty-something. I wanted to live and work in as many of the worlds wine regions as possible. I packed a weekend bag and headed to Oregon to learn all I could about Pinot Noir, and I never went home. I ended up living and working at wineries in the Willamette Valley for the next two years and while there, met the love of my life.

Next up, I wanted to get Napa/Sonoma on my resume. I took a job as a wine educator with the oldest family owned winery in Sonoma, packed my bags once again and took a leap. Lucky for me, my Love was willing to pick up and move with me. In Sonoma, we built a life and I built my career.

12 years later, we prioritized starting a family and as my little boy sleeps in a carrier attached to my chest, I am finding my way back to wine through writing. Full circle, in so many ways.

I haven't given up on my twenty-something selfs dream, Old World wine, I am coming for you next!

#winejourney #wine #travel