From Hobby, to Passion, to Purpose
It has been a 20 year journey, discovering wine. From the start, drinking wine had a certain vibe to it, a quality of relaxation present while sipping the wine. Coming home from work to sit on the porch among the trees with a glass of wine in hand, just as the Greeks did millennia ago, I found to uniquely connect me to nature and the human condition. Now in my 40s, with countless bottles tasted, inclusive of almost every red grape varietal utilized to make this nectar of the gods, my wife has suggested to put this passion to use. She has suggested that we follow our natural millennial disposition and…start a website/blog/podcast! That we can use our love and experience in wine to help others find their niche, and do so with our unique mix of shared experience, personality quirks…and honed argumentative style based on everything being shades of grey drilled into us during law school!
The most frustrating aspect of purchasing a bottle of wine is the uncertainty in what you will receive. First, there are so many varietals that tasting notes can run one into the other, and leave a casual drinker unsure, even the next day, what was the name, country of origin, or grape mixture in that great bottle they had last night at dinner. Then, there are the reviews. A google search will find you ad nauseum supposed expert reviews, all usually taking different positions on the same wine. Finally, the same varietal by the same company, but in a different year, may take the seemingly identical wine from good to bad, leaving you supremely disappointed when you open the bottle at your house.
My personal wine journey has been far reaching. My wine tastes started with Napa Valley, extended into the southern hemisphere locations like Australia, Chile, and Argentina, but most recently has led me to Europe. First love was Italian, but now it is the Iberian Peninsula where my heart lies. Spain, to me, represents by far the best value in red wines, with a flurry of amazing yet diverse varietals, aggressive, varied taste profiles, and a price point that works for all wine drinkers. Portugal similarly has great wines for a great price, but I have Spain a little ahead due to the wider set of spectacular varietals around that country. My wife and I are nothing if not diligent, and so we will be on the Iberian Peninsula this summer to conduct extensive research for this project!
With this as the preamble, please head over to our podcast page for our first tasting! It was incredibly fun and invigorating to complete that episode, and it ends with a very strong wine recommendation from one of our first tastings. Priscilla, as always, has linked the wine to the podcast and our products page, so you will easily be able to find it and pick it up where you are. Please do consider reaching back out to us and giving us your notes on the wine; we always love “knowledge sharing.”