As much as I like wine, I have to say my experience so far is fairly limited. That being said, working in a restaurant that served wine definitely helped my knowledge much more than I would have known otherwise. The first time I tried wine I made the typical mistake going into the deep end too quickly and taking on a strong red right from the get-go. I swore myself off of wine entirely for a while after that. I don't even remember what type of red wine it was, but I figured that wine overall just wasn't for me if it tasted anything like that. Keep in mind that my mother is an avid red wine drinker (at least a hefty glass a night), so it was probably some pretty strong stuff.
Then I started working in an upscale restaurant two summers ago where we sold wine by the glass or by the bottle. When I turned 21, I would sometimes sub as the bartender on weekends when we were really slammed. Between that and being a server, I had to have a basic knowledge of all of the wines we served to our customers. I got to taste each one and found that some of them weren't as bad as I remembered my first experience being. I particularly took to the Relax Riesling (my parents raised me on a diet packed full of sugar) and the Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. The Sauvignon Blanc had this distinct grapefruity taste that didn't smack you with a mouthful of sweetness like I've found some Rieslings can do.
My first red wine that I liked at my restaurant that was not a dessert wine (I never fail to love sugary drinks, as mentioned before) was Apothic Red, which is a blended wine. It didn't have a hard after-taste like I've tasted in other red wines. There was a subtle sweetness at the end without being too overwhelming.
Other than that I don't have much distinction between wines other than whether it's red or white, whether it's a dry wine, whether it's sweet, whether I like it, and any other thing I can read off the bottle itself.
Although I've never been to an official wine tasting, at my restaurant I have read the descriptions as to what you're supposed to taste in each wine and have been able to pick them out upon tasting it on occasion. I didn't do any of the fancy sniffing and swishing around my mouth, but I definitely let it sit in my mouth to see if I thought the descriptions were bullshitting me or not. There were some times when I found that I couldn't detect a hint of what they were talking about in the description. I used to just boil it down me being inexperienced, but now I know from the first few classes of Geography of Wine that it was all my palette's fault.
Knowing what I like thus far however, I do drink about a bottle of wine a week and really enjoy doing so. For the most part I stick to my Rieslings, because I'm more comfortable with trying different brands of that than any other varietal wine. But my goal in this class is to get out of my comfort zone and start to warm to a few other types of wines that I never thought I would, hopefully even a red that isn't a dessert wine! I also want to have enough knowledge about the taste to be able to distinguish what type of varietal wine I'm drinking without having to refer to the bottle for assistance. Maybe to even pick out the different types of grapes in a blended wine.
It would also be nice to know more about food pairings with different types of wine. So far I've just paired Reislings with whatever I've had in my refrigerator. Let me tell you, it's not always the best decision. Overall for this class, I hope to go out into the real world after college and impress at least one person with my wine-tasting skills. A small goal, but maybe one not so easy to accomplish. Maybe my goals will even increase throughout the class as I gain more confidence in this area of expertise.
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