The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
JRR Tolkien
Wine is a journey. But all journeys start somewhere. Where did I start? I think I entered it two times.
The first time, when I was 19 or 20, a little wine shop with Georgian wines opened just 100 meters from my home on my street. At that time, Georgian wine had a very good quality-to-price ratio, and the owner was a very knowledgeable man who taught me many wine basics.
But when You are 20, even not very expensive wine is quite expensive. Years passed, the shop closed and I rarely drank wine. For less money, You could get great craft beers and that’s what got my attention. I drank 20€ Cava for the new year and sometimes some 10-15€ New Zeland Sauvignon Blanc. But in general, You cannot get hooked on wine by drinking 5-7€ supermarket wine. There is nothing in there that can spark fascination.
15 years later I went to Romania with Pati for our 10th wedding anniversary. The last part of the trip was the visit to the vineyards of northern Romania and the Slovakian part of Tokaj (Hungarians hate this, I will probably write about its history someday). That was when we entered the path of wine once again. We restarted our journey.
Wine as I see it now, with my yet very limited knowledge is mainly about experience. Part of this experience is of course smell and taste but it is also so much more. It’s a moment, people we are drinking with and people that made a wine.
As it was an anniversary trip we bought much more expensive wines than we would normally buy. But buying it from the people who made it, already created the experience. Buying it at a vineyard made it in some cases 2 times cheaper than it would be in shops. We didn’t know that we were on for a ride.
We found some good wine educators on YouTube we learned basic how to taste wine and when we tried the first two bottles and our minds were blown. There were those crazy fruits, secondary aromas, and interesting long finishes. It was all there. We were hooked.
And what’s important, I think everyone can get hooked. It’s just a question of mindset, good enough wine and glass (oh I have to write about this, it’s so important).
So that’s the beginning. I’m starting, but I hope this diary can be helpful to others who are just beginning and could be intimidated by people who already know so much about wine.