I can say, at least for myself, that travel came first and the wine habit followed. Ten years ago, I was a bourbon-and-coke or beer guy.
But that changed when I started getting to fly more long haul J. Wine is by far the most interesting drink served in premium cabins - there are usually 4-6 selections representing different regions of the world. Often, the wines are chosen to represent the airline's home country (or others in their region). And the quality is generally high, while other beverages tend to be unremarkable (most airlines serve standard call liquors and mass-market beers, for example.) You'd be crazy not to take the opportunity to try Dom if you're flying Emirates F, for example.
Another factor is that wine is very popular in many regions of the world where FT'ers tend to travel (particularly Europe). It's basically impossible to visit Portugal, Spain, France or Italy and not get sucked up in the wine culture if you're a drinker. And while 2 Euro table wine is a big part of the culture in all of those places, they also have a diverse depth of more interesting stuff.
For me, once I've had a bunch of wines from a country while visiting it, my brain starts associating the tastes of those wines with my experience there. A crisp vinho verde reminds me of afternoons spent with cod and sunshine in Lisbon. Big, in your face Italian wines feel appropriate for the culture of Italy. A smooth LBV Port takes me back to the cellars of Porto. Fun-loving Spanish Rioja wines take me back to late nights tapas-hopping in Madrid. A refined, elegant Alsatian white almost perfectly captures the vibe of Strasbourg at Christmas for me. And, perhaps most of all, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc takes me back to my honeymoon, where we downed far too many bottles of the stuff far too easily between a Fijian beach and a Marlborough B&B.
Am I a wine professional, who can reliably tell expensive wine from swill and pull out notes of tobacco and starfruit? Nope, not even close. But I've drunk enough of the stuff now to describe traits I like and dislike, and I at least have developed an appreciation for interesting wine with character.
One of the delights of the stuff is that I continue to be surprised by new flavors and experiences - unsurprisingly, the same reason I have a travel habit, too. Something tells me I'm not the only FlyerTalker who's followed a similar path.
Originally Posted by
DeweyCheathem
I've had enough fine wine in my life that nowadays, what I drink is the stuff that is BOTH very good and very cheap. The fact is, there is an oversupply of fine wine on the market. You would be amazed at how much distressed inventory is out there. Stuff that was made by highly competent winemakers and organizations, with the intention of being sold for $20 to $100 a bottle, or more, and which can be picked up for under $10 a bottle under various circumstances - including negotiant labels like Cameron Hughes, or Trader Joes or Kirkland, or at clearing houses like Grocery Outlet. Recently I've been mainly drinking some more than very decent Spanish, Portuguese and Chilean red wines that were originally intended to sell for $20-$30 a bottle, but which I paid between $4-8 a bottle for most of it.
You would be shocked to learn how much high quality Syrah-, Grenache, and Tempranillo based wine can be found for $5 a bottle if you know where to look for it. Meanwhile, I've got cases and cases of $30-100 a bottle and more of California and French wine that's going un-consumed because the $5 Chilean Syrahs and Spanish Tempranillo/Garnacha blends give me just as much drinking pleasure at 1/8th the cost.
Do you have any advice for navigating liquidators like Grocery Outlet? I frequent one near my home; they have a pretty diverse selection, but everything's at a pretty similar price point and (as you'd expect for a liquidator masking the sources) none of the labels are familiar. It's doubly tricky because you aren't even guaranteed that wines will be consistent from batch to batch, since they may reuse the same branding for different products.
Do you just try a smattering of bottles, see which ones you like, and return to buy more of the favorites? Are there cues on the label that help you correlate with the real producer? Or are there third party reviews that help with the decisionmaking process?
Originally Posted by
Badenoch
My idea of fun with wine snobs is to play "stump the band" with wine from a little known wine growing region that I discovered during my travels.
A good friend of mine, also an FT sort (although a lurker rather than a poster), likes to do this with Georgian wine. It's pretty entertaining sport!