Welcome to my Wine Experience...Past, Present, and Future

Wine is something that I have become increasing interested in over the past four years.  Since Freshman year of college, I have spent my summers in France pursuing internships, study, and research.  Most of my wine experiences have come from my experience in France, as wine is always the beverage of choice for the French.  The role that wine plays within French culture is another aspect that I have found interesting.  I am double major in Finance and International Studies with a minor in French for Business.  I have studied French culture as well as seen first hand the large role that wine plays in France and the rest of the world.  Before college, I always saw wine as a more sophisticated drink and something that I was not that interested in trying.  I had a couple sips from my mother's glass, but I was not immediately a fan.  When I embarked for my first trip to France, I started being a little bit more adventurous.  I wanted to fit in and act like the locals so I started to drink wine and I started to enjoy drinking wine.  Often, I would go grocery shopping with a friend and simply get the same bottle that they were getting as long as it was less than 10 euros.  I tried a lot of wines during my travels in Europe the past three summers, but I still do not feel anywhere close to knowledgeable about wine.  

As a college student, I couldn't afford much or rather I chose to buy two or three 3euro bottles of wine versus one better quality wine for a higher price.  I would buy bottles in the medium range for a college kid 8-12euros only when I was bringing a wine as a gift for someone's birthday or job celebration.  I have a problem with remembering what is what.  I am terrible with remembering names and can only recognize a handful of labels of my top low price French wines.  I think the reason for this is the fact that I have never been taught differences between different wines and varieties, and I also did not know where to start looking and learning.  I have also had some great wines at dinner parties and work events while abroad, but again, I couldn't tell you what I tasted.  I spent two months working in Dijon, where I met a group of Californians enrolled in a wine study abroad course where they traveled throughout the Burgundy region and up to Alsace and into Germany and Italy.  I did partake in a couple of their wine tasting assignments without the paperwork and tried to ask some questions.  I had some very interesting conversations with locals in the Dijon area and realized that the cultural component to wine is significant.  I was told that every good frenchman knows what wine to buy for each occasion and what to pair with it.  This may have been a way for a couple guys to show off their skills to the one American girl in the place, but they did have some valid comments and the pairings tasted great.  I also took away another piece of knowledge from the Burgundy region. I discovered what cassis is and learned great ways to use la crème de cassis in particular wines.  I visited le Cassissium, the cassis museum in Nuits Saint Georges, with a couple of German students and took a tour in French (in which I am almost fluent) about the processes and la degustation.  I also brought back a couple bottles of la crème de cassis in my luggage that I had received as departure gifts from the office that I worked in that summer.   I have drank wine in mostly social situations, but on occasion I will drink a glass with dinner.  I have had wine in a more formal work setting as well.

Outside of France, I typically drink white or rosé and at times red.  I generally like sweeter wines, but I have had some drier reds that I liked as well.  I am taking this class in order to feel more comfortable around wine and to actually absorb this basic knowledge of wine that I should have learned years ago.  Although wine is not readily acknowledged as a "need-to-know" in American culture, I know that a greater knowledge of wine will help me as I develop my career in business.  I also want to go back to France to work within a couple years of graduation and I know it is essential not to be perceived as a naive, uncultured American. I am looking forward to developing my tastes further and to actually remember types of wine that I like and typically dislike.  I also want to work personally to focus on trying some more French wines through assignments in the course.  I can't wait to delve deeper into the amazing geography of wine with Virginia Tech's Professor John Boyer guiding the way!



See the Cassis museum here! http://www.cassissium.fr