My Personal Experience with Wine

    As a newly-turned 21-year-old, I am thrilled to be beginning my journey of wine appreciation in such an immersive way. Wine is an intimidating topic because of its seemingly sophisticated language and confusing jargon. By the end of this course, my goals are to understand the language of wine and be able to order from an extensive wine list without feeling intimidated by making a poor choice. I also hope to be able to distinguish the tastes of different varieties of wines and develop my pallet to enjoy the unique notes in each. 

    Among the major categories of alcoholic beverages, I am the least-experienced in wine. I find myself only drinking wine when it is provided to me in a dinner setting. When I went to Europe two summers ago, I was served wine with each dinner that was supposed to complement whichever meal we were eating. I have no recollection of which variety of wine we were served, but I do know that I enjoyed the reds more than the whites for most of the meals. I specifically remember enjoying an Austrian red wine that was paired with a steak dish and enjoying a white wine that was paired with a chicken dish.

    After enjoying these food pairings in Europe, I have always wanted to pair wine with food, but never know which wine to buy. I am hoping that upon conclusion of this course, I will be adept in the enjoyment of wine and will be able to form my opinions about tastes and pairings. I enjoy the tastes of most wines and want to hone in my palette to identify the varieties that I enjoy more than others. Overall, I am very excited to be taking this course and am looking forward to the day that I can order wine without feeling intimidated.