Understanding and be able to communicate what we like in wine is a maze, but here is an algorithm to solve it
The moment of enlightenment comes to you when you stop trying so hard and understand the simplicity of wine for what it is meant to be
We all tend to be a little defensive when we step outside of our comfort zone, no matter in which scenario we are playing and no matter what situation we are in. We use that defensiveness as a mechanism not to look inappropriate in a certain situation or to communicate our level of discomfort. It happens in every aspect of daily life, even when we are asked to choose what wine we want to drink at a restaurant.
I see it happening on a daily basis, people asking about a grape variety rather than a wine and when a sommelier ask which style of that specific wine they would like to order, the customer becomes defensive and comes up with a statement such as “I drink a lot of Chardonnay”, or even better “I just want a Chardonnay, you know?”. No, I don’t know. I don’t know what style you want to drink, and I don’t know what rocks your boat.
Normally at that point, the customer becomes even more defensive, closes the wine list and orders something that he will later complain about as it was not what he had in his mind. The problem, or better the problemS, are that it is not easy to communicate what wine style we want to drink and it is not easy to have a clear idea of how to describe what we like and what we don’t like. Wine is not taught in schools, and when you try to research something about wine online is a jungle of technical terms and jargon that it is impossible to decipher. It is a maze that intentionally does not have an easy solution.
I get it. I have been there, and it is not fun. It is intimidating unless you have a clear plan to solve that maze and find your way out of that labyrinth. So in the next few paragraphs, I will try to give your few hints to design your algorithm to solve that maze or at least a plan to navigate that maze with a precise plan. An algorithm is a set of rules that help solve the complex problem, and I will introduce you to few sets of rules that could help us navigate the wine maze.
First class of problems, embrace the fact that nobody knows all
First and foremost, it is important to acknowledge that you will never ever know everything that there is to know about wine. Get that in your head and you are halfway there. A few years ago I thought I knew about wine, I was pretty sure I could navigate my way through any wine maze without too many troubles. Then I bought a vineyard in Italy, and I have very poorly attempted to run it while I was leaving overseas. What a disaster came out of the first years. Unprepared, without enough knowledge, without a clue on the patience that was required, I failed miserably. At that stage, I embraced the fact that I did not know much about wine, and ever since the journey has been more fun and the results have been excellent.
Second class of problem, stop trying and keep it simple
After you have realized you don’t know about wine, it should be easy and almost natural to start thinking about wine from a simpler approach. Stop over-complicate your life with terms that you have heard at that cool wine bar, stop repeating those term without knowing exactly what they mean. Keep it simple. Do you like a wine that is fresh? Ask for a wine that has a fresh feeling, not a mineral-zesty acidity matched with blah blah blah… word salad is not helping anyone. During my experience trying to make my own wine, I kept trying to give instruction as if I actually knew what to do, and it turned out to be a disaster. I then performed a complete mental shift and start asking the simpler questions and demanding simpler answers. While at the beginning I was asking to increase the phenolates (!?!?!?!, I did not really know what they were anyway), I started asking if it was possible to create a bigger wine and with a softer palate. This second approach got me going for miles and helped me communicate and achieve some results. In the exact same way, when you are ordering a bottle of wine, start asking for a bigger, softer, fresher, powerful, delicate, fruity wine and forget about technical terms.
Third class of problem, realize that it is easy to talk about wine in non-wine terms
“She has a bubbly personality”, is clearly an attempt to describe the personality of a person with a fun, upbeat, excited, animated and enthusiastic person. This comes from associating the character of a person to champagne or a sparkling wine more in general. Why are we not using this approach to describe a wine?
A wine that is fun, upbeat and enthusiastic = Sparkling, Champagne.
A big red wine = Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz
A delicate red wine = Pinot Noir,
A fresh red wine = Barbera anyone???
An approachable red wine = Grenache, Cotes du Rhone
A complex white = Marsanne-Rousanne
A fuller white wine = why not exploring orange wine???
And you can come up with any other descriptors… fun, simple, muscular, nervous white wine (yes nervous, think it as a Riesling with a lot of acidities).
Keep it simple and I will normally understand what you are trying to communicate with me, but if you get technical to make sure you know what you talk about or it will become a mess. I tend to associate wine characters with the characters of people around me and that works really well for me. Give it a go.
Fourth class of problem, understand how wine is made will take you a long way into your wine journey
As I told you before, I thought I knew about wine. That was me roughly 4 years ago before I began looking into the wine-making process. Then I started following a vineyard and I realized I knew very little about wine, but I was absolutely fine with that. The point was never to become an expert, but to enjoy the journey. And trust me, there is nothing as enjoyable to learn to wait for the grapes to be ripe at just the right point, for the wine to be resting in barrels and for the label to be put on your first bottle.
That process is now a little bit more accessible to follow and to own as your one, and if you want to share that journey with me just jump on 2makewine.com and follow the creation of our wine. In the meantime don’t forget to KEEP IT SIMPLE, ENJOY THE JOURNEY and STOP TRYING TO USE TECHNICAL TERMS.
Michele, Marco and the 2makewine team.
