Look here: I’m not a wine guy. I’m more of a tequila guy. But I’d like to be a wine guy. It seems so cool to be able to open up a bottle (even during the week), pour yourself a glass, swish it around (the glass or your mouth), and then have it amplify whatever you’re eating. So how does one go from having no wine pallet at all (that’s me) to being a connoisseur (or at least holding their own at a Niagara Falls winery or at the LCBO Vintages section)? Well, here’s what I’ve tried so far to get up to speed:
- Talk to dentists who enjoy wine. I talked to Dr. Ed (while in Bermuda at a UWO destination course) last year and he mentioned that red wines with high alcohol content are better. Turns out: I think he’s correct! Those big, bold cabs with 16% alcohol contents are fantastic (for me personally). Mind you: they do pack a punch so drink responsibly. I also asked Dr. A. about the types of wines he liked to drink. He mentioned a few: Amarone della Valpolicella (Italian) for red and Conundrum (California blend) for white. Turns out: both wines are fantastic, though a little pricier. I also talked to Dr. Peter, who told me (probably because he’s originally from France) that Cheatueaneuf du pape is absolutely the best wine in the world. And you know what? It’s pretty darn good (although expensive as well!).
- Talk to dentists who make wine. Funny enough, I’m going to be interviewing Dr. Norm (a popular amateur wine-making dentist who’s won awards for his wine) about his wine-making. Stay tuned!
- Visit Wineries. They’ll teach you how to sample wines, what to look for, how to pair wines, etc. It’s very educational! We here at DMC LLP have taken the team to Henry of Pelham Family Estate and we’re heading to three (3) more wineries in the Fall.
- Read the reviews online. While at the LCBO, I pull out my iphone and start googling the wines. I want to know what to expect with a certain wine. Does it have hints of citrus, chocolate, and cigars? What does it pair well with? I like to have a nice platinum steak with a bold red wine.
- Let it breathe! Is it just me or does wine taste better about 12-24 hours after the bottle has been opened? Nope: it’s not just me. A lot of dentists think the same way.
- “The Wine is the Meal“. One dentist in Kitchener Waterloo said this to me. I’d never heard someone put it that way. But it makes sense. To appreciate a good wine, you should be able to have it alone. If you want to accentuate the wine as it breathes (oxidizes), then select some food pairings. But the food should not be the meal; the wine is the meal. And he then told me about a great 1960s bottle of wine that he and his wife had 30 years later in a restaurant. They sat and enjoyed it for hours and said, single-handedly, that it was the best bottle of wine they’d ever had and an amazing experience overall.
- My Taste is Changing! At first, I didn’t like wine. Heck, I didn’t like coffee at first either. I used to be only able to drink coffee with four (4) sugars and four (4) creams. Nowadays, I’ll have an espresso without sugar or anything else to TASTE the bean. Talk about night and day (from when I first started drinking coffee). The same thing happened to me with wine. I started off only liking the really sweet red wines (like Niagara ice wine), and then I moved down the sweetness scale (to big bold California reds), but then started tappering off into neutral and now I don’t even mind the occasional slightly dry wine. Not the type that makes my mouth and tongue pucker up and my face all distorted. Here, I’m talking about a decent reserve Pinot Noir from Henry of Pelham Family Estate. That’s not a bad bottle at all (and I don’t generally care for Pinot Noirs!).
- Sometimes, the price is right! I went to a restaurant and had the 2011 Cannonball (California, Cab). It was great! Better than the typical house wines you find in restaurants. Then I went to the LCBO and found the 2012 bottles in the Vintages section. Only $23 a bottle. I picked up a few. And Cannonball is a great bottle if you’re looking for an everyday table wine. My cousin told me to invest in a Portguese Wall called Terra Nova. It was only $8 he said. I bought it. It was terrible. Absolutely brutal. I threw out the glass I had poured for myself and handed him the rest of the bottle. Mind you: sometimes there are nice tasting wines out there at reasonable prices (a California Cab called “Bear Flag” is one such example – at roughly $12 a bottle). But when I find that I want an absolutely great bottle, where I need the wine to be the meal, I typically go for (based on the advice of the dentists I’ve spoken with) an Amarone or a Cheatueaneuf du pape.
Bottom line: I’ve taken up social wine drinking as a hobby. And I’ve only done so recently. And I only partake very occasionally. If you have a bottle of red (or white) wine that you recommend, let me know! I’m looking for a good education…
