My Wine Epiphany

Did you ever have one of those moments where you see something, like a movie, or play, or TV show, or do something, like paint a picture, or volunteer at a shelter or whatever, where you found yourself thinking "I want to dedicate a significant portion of my time, effort, and money to this activity/thing."?

I've had a few in my life. Here are some of my past epiphany moments:

September 1991- I read X-MEN #1. This was my comic book epiphany.

December 1996- My first ever play. My algebra teacher, Mrs. Darrin, cast me as a narrator in my high school's production of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". This was my theater epiphany.

September 2000- I audition for UMass Amherst's Mission IMPROV:able- and get in. Possibly my most important epiphany- my improv epiphany.

Sometime in 2004- While watching "Good Eats" on Food Network, I realize that food has the ability to be really, truly incredible. This is my food epiphany.

And of course there have been others- many of which I only vaguely remember.

Last week, I had my most recent epiphany.

We'll call it the wine epiphany.

Now, before we get started, I like wine. I've been drinking wine since at least 2001, and I could probably hold my own in a conversation with a wine snob. I know all about grape varietals, and the major wine producing regions of the world. I know how to read a wine label and figure out if something is decent or not.

With all of that said, before last Wednesday, I would've considered myself a casual drinker of wine, at best. In my pantheon of beverages, wine probably would not have cracked the top ten, other members of which include beer, whiskey, milk, and apple cider.

So what happened?

I went to a wine tasting at the urging of Chelsea, my lovely ladyfriend. I didn't really want to go. Going to the wine tasting would mean that I would miss my daily gym time, and I've always assumed that wine tastings were mostly good for watching snobs gather and try to out-snob each other. But, there were a few factors that convinced me to go:

1. It was free. We were going as guests of our dear friends Mel and Bill, and we weren't going to have to pay a cent to get boozed up.

2. I tweaked my shoulder lifting a grocery bag last week, and really should have rested it before working out.

3. Sometimes when you're in a relationship, it's important to do something you might not be crazy about because it will make your partner happy. As my partner (Chelsea) is awesome, I like making her happy.

4. Did I mention it was free? Free booze?

We got to the store (called Just Grapes) where they were doing the tasting, and it was really, really crowded, which of course, made really uneasy as I have some social phobia issues. We went inside, checked our coats and bags, grabbed our glasses, and started wandering around the stations to taste what the wine people had to offer.

As we drank each glass (and I think we tried somewhere from 16 to 20 wines all in all) we talked about their tastes, textures, etc. My lexicon in this conversation consisted mostly of words like "good" and "bad". Bill, and Mel's was much more varied, Mel especially. Some of the wines tasted "earthy", or "tannic". Others were "peppery" or had a "mineral-y after taste". For some reason all of this detailed vino-talk started filtering into my hollow noggin' as we went along. I did start to notice some of the finer subtleties of the wine, and I realized that wine, that frequent companion of food (one of my other major life passions), has so much in common with said companion.

Wines, like food, has alot going on. There are things to think about in every glass.

That realization, the realization that wine was every bit as complex and interesting as food led me to where I find myself now in regards to it.

I want to know wine. I want to understand wine. I want to dedicate a significant portion of my time, effort, and money to wine.

So I will. I already went out and bought a 900 page book about wine and a little notebook to scribble down thoughts about various wines. That's my first step. From here? Who knows? I can't wait. Wine, here I come.