As a wine consultant with WineShop At Home, I’ve gotten to learn all kinds of interesting things about wine and people’s enjoyment of this wonderful drink. In this article, I’ll share four things I’ve learned about wine as a wine consultant.
Learning 1: People’s Enjoyment of Wine Increases When Fear Is Removed
Many of us feel intimidated by wine. We assume that everybody knows more than we do. We feel embarrassed looking at a restaurant’s wine menu. When somebody says, “Wow, that wine is very acidic,” we sheepishly agree, even though we have no clue what the person is talking about.
It’s hard to enjoy wine when you feel intimidated. One of my goals when I’m leading tastings is to demystify wine. I often start my tastings by saying, “Okay, guys, let’s start with the basics. We are tasting fermented grape juice. That’s not very intimidating. Is it?”
As my tastings go on, and people begin to see how low key wine tasting can be, they have increasingly more fun.
Learning 2: People’s Enjoyment of Wine Increases with Knowledge
In my article “Wine Knowledge Increases Wine Enjoyment,” I introduce a few basic concepts that I think are incredibly helpful in building your appreciation of wine:
- The four steps of wine tasting: See, Swirl, Smell, Sip
- What to look for when tasting wine
- Wine jargon
If you are new to wine, I encourage you to read this article. I’m confident that it will increase your enjoyment of wine.
Learning 3: The More You Know about Wine, the More There Is to Know
Wine keeps you humble. Why? Because there is so dang much to know. Whenever people tell me that I know a lot, I open my thumb and pointer finger a tiny amount and say, “I probably know this much more than you.”
The nice thing is that you always get to be a student, and you always get to learn. In fact, every time you try a wine, it’s an opportunity to learn.
Keeping an open mind and an excitement about learning keeps wine really fun.
Learning 4: Don’t Yuck Anybody’s Yum
This is one of my favorites, and it comes from my sponsor at WineShop At Home. The bottom line here is the wine you like isn’t necessarily the wine I like, and vice versa.
Does that make one of us better than the other? No! How about if one of use likes White Zinfandel? No!
On this topic, I encourage you to read my article about Tim Hanni, a Master of Wine who encourages people to honor and respect all wine drinkers, regardless of the wine they drink. Amen to that!
If you’d like to join my team as a wine consultant, please visit my Wine Business page to learn more about this WINEderful opportunity.
Cheers!
As an independent wine consultant with WineShop At Home, I absolutely enjoy bringing a taste of the Napa wine country home to you one sip at a time. Whether you simply love to drink wine, would like to host a tasting, seek a special gift, or are in search of a new wine jobs opportunity as a wine consultant, feel free to contact me for a truly unique wine tasting experience!
Cheers,
Betty Kaufman, WineShop At Home
