Wine Lover
Wine is my favorite! I love to sip, taste, try new wines. It seems the more I learn the more there is to learn!
I thought it would be fun to share a few short stories from our painters/taster's experiences and what they found when tasting a few of our featured wines.
First a few observations:
1. Sometimes when a painter says they like sweet, they really like fruity
2. People who truly like sweet wine, REALLY like sweet wine- (remember this when reading one of the wine stories below)
3. Chardonnay runs the gamete for preferences- Some true Chardonnay lovers like it "oakie"/buttery others (myself included) prefer a steel barrel Chardonnay
The first story is one I find myself telling frequently. One of our regular painters really loves sweet wine. When we got a "sweet red" wine in, she was the first to try it. Her reaction is the best part of the story. She sipped and then a big smile and said," OHHHH it tastes like Welch's grape juice!" Hah, I said, wow, there is the difference between your taste buds and mine. I would have said, "Ewww, it tastes like Welch's grape juice!" That is the point of tasting, we all have a personal preference and that is great.
Another story I like to share is about one our most popular wines. It is a Primitivo. Now some of you may know of this Italian grape, but most have never heard of it. That is another great benefit to our wine shop and the tastings while painting. Sure we have the mainstream varietals, but we like to share more unique wines too. So the Primitivo is an Italian red known as their BBQ wine, so it is good with anything off the grill. There was a group of...hmmm... shall I say "enthusiastic" tasters painting and they loved it. I made the mistake of saying, "It is good with anything off the grill, steak, burgers, chicken even hot dogs"- Now they couldn't remember the grape/wine so they said," I want the "hot dog" wine, please?" Oh no, I didn't mean to dub it "hot dog" wine :)
I'll share one more story with you. We have several wonderful Austrian wines in the shop. A painter favorite is our "secco". It is a sparkling Rose' it's a Pinot noir grape and such a beautiful color- Technically it should appeal to those who prefer sweet due the sugar content. However, we have found that this one appeals to most! In fact one of our VIP painters, Alison loves it. When we see her on our seating chart, every artist knows to get a bottle chilled if it is not on the featured wine table. We had a very (self described) picky wine taster in who said "I don't like sweet!", but her friend encouraged her try it- After all it is a tasting, if she didn't like it, that is okay, we aren't offended. Well she loved it, and said it is not sweet at all (bought 2 bottles to take home). At the same painting event, another painter tried it and said she loved it because it was sweet!
The moral of all of these stories is - There are no rules when it comes to wine preference! Taste it and if you like it??? Great. Try something new, you just might surprise yourself.
Cheers y'all!