Welcome to My Wine Blog!

For years, people have been telling me I should write a wine blog.

Another wine blog?!

Sure, I love wine, I go to several tastings a week, and I always seem to be talking about wine, but … another wine blog?! Just what the world needs, right?

Well, I’ve finally caved in, so here it is — My Wine Blog!

I don’t pretend that it will be particularly unique, or that it’ll fill any particular niche, or that it’ll have any consistent theme, or even that I’ll post at consistent intervals.

But I do think it’ll be fun to have a place to write about wine for my friends (and any innocent bystanders), and a place to organize my burgeoning collection of notes and thoughts about wines I’ve tried, fallen in love with, and been surprised by.

 

I imagine some posts will be pretty nerdy and detailed (“notes of barnyard and freshly cut garden hose”); others will be really simple (a picture of a wine that blew me away); a few may be about wine-related travel or experiences (I’m going to Napa this summer, so brace yourself).

We’ll just see where this goes!

A little bit about me

When I get into conversations about wine – which seems to happen a lot – people sometimes ask me if I’m a somm or if I work in the industry.

“No,” I say, “but I hang out with a bunch of smart people who do.”

Around 2010, I started going to tastings in and around my adopted hometown of Orlando. As with many wine lovers, my casual interest grew into a fascination, nurtured in large part by the warm and wonderful owner of a delightful wine shop called Vino! (no longer there, sadly) in Winter Park, FL.

Four years later, I was at a tasting at The Wine Barn, also in Winter Park, and got to chatting with the representative from the importer of the Argentinian wines we were sampling. She invited me to a blind tasting with a group studying for the Certified Sommelier exam.

I was reluctant – after all, I was a complete amateur, and I’d certainly never been to a blind tasting – but I’m so glad I screwed up my courage and went.

I’ve been blind tasting with that group almost every Tuesday since.

Through that experience, I’ve made wonderful friends in all aspects of the wine industry. I’ve watched them study for, pass (and sometimes fail) wine exams, climb the career ladder in Orlando’s growing and maturing wine scene (my friend and former Argentinian importer rep is now the beverage director at Orlando’s Del Frisco’s Double Eagle), and even open their own local wine bars (like Swirlery, where we now hold our Tuesday tastings).

I’ve also learned a heck of a lot about wine. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience wines I never knew existed (orange wines come to mind) and never expected to get the change to try (like vintage Barolos and Bordeaux and Rieslings).

Right now I’m sipping Champalou Vouvray on the porch. It seemed to pair well with an initial blog post.

But I can’t wait for the next sip of something new.

(By the way, in my other life, I’m a journalist and a public media news consultant. I blog about that over here, if you’re interested.)