Trusting Your Inner Expert

Reflection No. 24

My friends like to defer to me as some kind of wine expert, but the truth is I am constantly learning from them. And this is a big part of what makes wine so exciting to me. Everyone likes wine for their own reasons and everyone experiences something unique in the wines they like. The only wisdom I can impart is to encourage you to not be afraid to let your senses play and dance around the aromas and flavors emerging from your glass.

I have a wonderful Italian foodie friend who likes wine, but we usually have martinis together. One night we were at a dinner party. A few minutes after the wine had been poured, she leaned around the guy between us and asked, “Did you get the rhubarb?” I had never tasted rhubarb before so I spent the rest of the night seeking it in my wine. Another friend considers herself technically deficient in her knowledge of wine, yet she took one whiff of a Trousseau Gris and ran out the front door, returning with a bright green sprig from a plant in the garden. It had a distinctive dry pine and honey aroma and it was exactly the same as the one coming from our glasses (the plant was called “Breath of Heaven”!). 

Wine is ready to generously share its nature with us. Engaging with the nuances of its aromas, flavors and textures does not require knowledge. In fact, the less we know, the easier it is to set ourselves free, so that when rhubarb comes to mind we trust it, even when others are sensing plums. Be curious, experiment and surrender to the transcendental journey from our minds into the vast resources of our memories and imagination. This is where we will find our own inner expert.