wine ducky

I’ve started this thirty seven times. In my head. While in the shower or during slow times at one job or another. During lulls in group conversation. Thirty seven times I’ve told myself I’d sit down and hash out a format and a tone and some graphics and a plan… But kinda fuck that. I think I just need to start throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

Maybe I’ll improve as I go or maybe this will die tomorrow. I just need to get my thoughts written down as they happen. Any passionate query, criticism, rant, rave, aside or digression is more than welcome. But if that doesn’t happen, it’s ok, the rambling helps me process and retain thoughts and information.

“So how did you get into wine?” (Or beer, or spirits, or coffee or cocktails) is a question that I’m asked every day. I’m always slightly taken aback.

As a kid (maybe 6?) I noticed my grandmother sitting at her dining room table every afternoon and drinking her decaf folgers instant coffee. Even then, there was something about the routine, the schedule, the ritual of it that fascinated me. I couldn’t put it into words, I would just glance over and furrow my brow, then go back to watching peter pan.

my mother and tea

My mom would similarly drink her decaf lipton tea. When I grew older, I would think “It’s decaf, why even bother… I don’t… What’s the point?” but then move on to playing video games or chatting up girls online or whatever. Later I’d become infatuated with the role of beverage rituals in the context of our society and in different cultures. The ritual of it, the social bonds formed and maintained over drinks, the excuse of ‘grabbing a drink’ with someone when, really, you’re after their time and conversation. Asking to meet for a cup of tea, coffee, glass of beer, wine, whisk(e)y. Same function, different liquid.

my dad and coffee

About that age, on weekends, my dad would try to get me to go fishing at stupid o’clock in the morning. I’ve always been a night owl and I was definitely a punk as a teenager, so I probably went to bed at 3am after playing Starcraft all night. Eventually my dad figured out that I’d perk up and be pretty enthusiastic and (more) pleasant if he gave me some espresso.

Eventually, over the course of a few years, that lead into him and I grabbing a coffee at coffee shops and hanging out. Just sitting down and bullshitting, really. I didn’t think about it too much at the time, but we spent many afternoons hanging out at coffee shops.

A couple years later I got a job at a coffee shop because I was sincerely obsessed with coffee and wanted to learn as much as possible. It wasn’t just a job to me. I loved that job and ran through their entire education program, up through their equivalent of ‘master barista’.

I don’t think I’ll forget my first beer purchase, which was a shitty european pale lager. Paired with the ‘Mod Squad’ remake and a co-worker’s couch. I definitely didn’t know it at the time, but the gal I was watching it with would become one of my closest friends in the world.

I’d go on to date her next roommate who worked at a wine bar. I didn’t care about wine, but liked beer, I just didn’t know anything about it. Occasionally when I was bored and if she was having a slow night, I’d hang out at the wine bar. Her boss (a fancy-pants sommelier) told me about a beer bar up the road. This was… Maybe 2007, when the phrase ‘beer bar’ was a really weird concept. It took me three attempts to find Redlight, Redlight which, at the time, was basically an attic above a bakery.

my first real beer

If I’m remembering correctly (this was 11 years ago) it didn’t have a sign, it just had an unmarked door which led to a staircase lit by a dim red lightbulb. Immediately greeted by the smell of baked goods from the bakery and gallons upon gallons of stale beer spilled on the floor, you went up the staircase into the most dimly lit bar I’ve ever been in. At that point there were… Maybe ten craft brewers that had any kind of appreciable distribution? The term micro brew was still a phrase being used to describe Bell’s and Oskar Blues.

The second or third time I was there I sat next to a dude that complimented my beer choice. I said something like “Oh I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, I just picked one at random.” and he laughed. He introduced himself. Sam was his name. Sam C. As in “Sam Calagione, founder and president of Dogfish Head.” Yeah, that dude was in town and wanted some good beer, so he went to the best beer bar in town. He started talking to me about diacetyl (a conversation I remember clearly) and other stuff that I do not. He opened my eyes to the world of beer nerdery. I still didn’t care about wine or spirits, but on some level, I ‘got’ what beer was about.

my first real wine

Flash forward about six months. My girlfriend-at-the-time and I were celebrating her birthday and we were at the wine bar she worked at. Her boss opened and gave us a bottle of wine that blew apart my barely-21 year old mind. I’ll never forget that bottle. 2004 Martinelli Giussepe & Luisa Zinfandel. I still remember exactly where we were sitting in the wine bar and who was with us when I smelled that wine for the first time. [Sidetrack; all of us worked at a coffee shop together and one of the dudes with us that night is now a Certified Sommelier!]

At some point (maybe 15 minutes after pouring the wine) my lady said “Hey, are you going to actually try the wine?”

I couldn’t stop smelling it. I couldn’t get past how intense and rich and saturated the aroma was. Even though I don’t really care for Zin now, I still get chills thinking about that moment. I didn’t know wine could be like that.

That moment is really what did it for me. Sure, I went to college for graphic design, worked as a Project Manager for a design company, did some freelance stuff, small business marketing, SEO, etc, but I kept coming back to beer and wine.

Eventually I ended up getting a job for a major big box liquor retail store. I learned a lot by talking to guests and used their internal employee education system to my advantage, but I can sincerely say I do not want to do retail again as long as I live. It’s just not for me.

While working for the retail store one of my co-workers became my roommate. I’d gotten into whiskey and some other spirits recently, but (I’m embarrassed to say) my idea of cocktails put a mojito in the same group as a kamikaze.

my first real cocktail

One day my roommate took me to a legit cocktail bar and blew my mind apart. The attention to detail, the care in preparation, the freshness of ingredients. I ‘got’ cocktails then. He had several books at home that I’d read cover to cover a few times to understand cocktails, syrups, shrubs, all that cocktail nerd stuff.

We’d also play around with drinks at the apartment, shopping some drink or another. Some worked. Most didn’t. A few were shockingly good. I still have a recipe for a rum drink with 7(!) different rums in it. You’d think the rums would blend together and be indistinguishable, but it actually has a ton of layers to it. Pretty cool.

Here we are. Currently I’m working for a wine bar, working for a winery and studying for Certified Sommelier (level 2 with the Court of Master Sommeliers). After that, the plan is to study for Certified Cicerone. I might pick up a few other certifications (I’m looking at you, WSET) along the way. We’ll see what happens.

So that’s kind of it. That’s how I became a beverage evangelist, preaching the gospel of the drink at people until they tell me to stop or walk away. The following posts will be kind of whatever I feel like I need to get out so that I can process and retain. I hope it doesn’t suck.

Thanks for reading!