I found quite a few reasons for my own wine passion and tried to put together a list of some most important ones here. What are your own reasons?
1) Wine makes me happy
And I don’t mean that I like to get “happy” by drinking a lot of wine. 🙂 But if you enjoy sitting down, having a delicious meal with friends, sharing a bottle of wine with it, you know what I am talking about. When it’s paired right, it really brings your meal to a different level.
Sometimes I created a meal around the bottle of wine I had. And sometimes I went to my wine cellar and just picked up some “super bottle left for a special occasion”. Than, without any reason, I made a nice dinner and created a special occasion for that wine. It made me happy.
2) Wine challenges me to learn more
When I started to be serious about wine, suddenly I was exposed to many very knowledgeable wine professionals. It wasn’t coincidence, I paid attention. I was interested. The more wine makers, sommeliers, or just simply wine enthusiasts I met, the more I realized how little I really knew about the wine. There was so much more to explore.
It was exciting to start recognizing the differences in style, regions, grape varietals, wine making techniques or simply types of oak in wine.
At first I was completely overwhelmed and believed that I could never learn as much as these people knew. And than you taste and taste and naturally develop the sixth sense of appreciating the quality in any given wine. It makes you feel great and you never stop learning.3) I am never bored with wine
Did you ever realize that you could open a different bottle of wine every single day of your life, and you wouldn’t be able to taste them all? I feel terrible for people that completely avoid a certain variety or region just because they once had a bad experience with it. Or even worse, they only heard about it.
If you once had really bad bread, it’s not a reason to stop eating bread all together, is it? So why so many people would eliminate certain wines like “I don’t like Merlot.” Is it because it’s fashionable since Sideways? (just kidding). There are spectacular Merlot wines in the world. You couldn’t possibly tasted them all to make such a statement. I would certainly never do that.
It would be fun to challenge some of those “non Merlot drinkers” and pour them some outstanding, Merlot based wines. They would never, ever believe me that what they just totally admired, was made from that grape.
4) Making wine is a respectful labor
Did you ever think about how many hands possibly “touched your wine” before it made it to your table? Somebody planted the vineyards and waited for years, carefully caring for it, to start harvesting.
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The grapes have been touched by workers at the vineyard several times a year pruning, caring and when ready, harvesting. When the wine was brought to the winery, other hands were de-stemming it and moving to presses. Was your wine being cold soaked before the fermentation? That requires some control as well. After that the wine was transported to fermentation tanks. How many days it fermented? How many people came around to check on it to make sure it was timed right?If the wine aged in oak, somebody made the barrels for the winery to use. Most likely they were racking the barrels with wine while aging, quite a few times. Especially if it aged for several months. Did they filter and fine it before it went to the bottles? Than the wine finally made it to the your bottle. That should be the end of the road for it. But it needs to be closed – somebody harvested and prepared the cork, marked it with their logo and placed it on top. Yes I know, in most places they have machines for that. But somebody had to operate the machine anyway.
Than another person designed a stacked the label to it. Than it was packed into a case and kept in a winery warehouse. Was it imported from different country? How many types of transportation did it go through before it got here? Your wine had to travel with truck drivers, by ships, through harbors, customs and than with another truck to the hands of warehouse staff.
Most of the wine went to the wholesaler warehouse and than some salesman like me got the sample to show it around. I may have shown that one bottle to 15-20 people in one day. Every one of them took that bottle in their hands and checked the label. If they liked the wine, they purchased it.
That means that our night shift staff loaded the company trucks and driver delivered it to the wine store or restaurant. Somebody there had to put it away or display it. How many customers in the store took that bottle, checked the information and put it back?
Or did you bring it to your friend’s party? Who else touched your bottle of wine?
I don’t know, I lost count. How about you? When you think of it, isn’t wine worth the appreciation?
5) You can travel with wine without ever leaving your living room
First what grape it is, than where it came from – we would sometimes start with new world – old world style and go from there. He was very good in figuring it out and we both had a lot of fun discovering it together. Italian wines taste different than Californian. Oregon wines are very typical and nothing like Sonoma. Argentina wines are totally different than let’s say Burgundy. It could be a great trip around the world with a glass of wine in your hands.
What are your reasons?
ilovevinoblog.com 
Dear Wine lover, thank you for your reasons to love wine. I know, there are so many more when you think about it. Check out my "What I call slow wines" post to see some more….As I said at the beginning of this blog, I am posting only some, the most important ones. But you're right, the list can go on and on – but nobody would read such a long blog:) I totally agree with you – I don't know as much in details about chemical processes during the wine making – so I approached it more from the consumer point of view. I envy you for choosing such an interesting subject of your studies and for being in Argentina! Where in Argentina are you? Send us some beautiful pictures!
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First of all i will apologize about my english, I havent practiced it for a long time, but i really liked your post and made me think a lot.I totally agree with you:a bottle of wine can make any common meeting become an especial one, you always have something new to learn, and definetly every single cup means the effort of a lot of people.But I thing that what i love more about wine is the fact that it awaken our sences.Im studing enology and for me it is incredible how every little chemical molecule can change and evolve, from the plant to the bottle to provide a houndred of different pleasures to be discovered by us:i really think that it has magic!Kisses from Argentina!
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Thank you Jerry! You're a living proof that somebody who didn't care for wine at all might become a passionate wine lover with the right "influences". All you need is love and an open mind. You have plenty of both. It taste so much better if you have somebody to share it with…:)
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I know firsthand how passionate you are about wine. I am witnessing it every day and I never get tired of it. It is almost 20 years since my fascination with you was born. And it is like with many wines you introduced me to – longer you keep it, better it gets. Jerry
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