How did you develop a preference for wine....

[smokin fool]

From time to time a thread will appear on this site asking for advise pairing meats with wines.
Always a difficult questions to answer depending on peoples palettes, likes and dislikes.
I love dry red wines, dryer the better, I want sand in the bottom of my glass after finishing a glass of my favorite plonk.
I do/will drink whites but if there's a red being poured that's the avenue I'm most likely to take.

So my question today is how did you develop a taste for your favorite wine?

In my case attending weddings.
Every table had a bottle of red and white wine for consumption during dinner, in some cases a waiter would be serving.
In most cases 90% of people would pour or ask for the white wine, a table of 6-8 the bottle of white would be gone in one round.
I soon figured out that left a whole bottle of red un-touched in most cases, so....I'll pour/have the red please....

What's your story.

[RiverJeff]

I just needed a break from all the beer and crown royal so a good merlot really hits the spot now!

[smokin fool]

I get the beered out thing, happens to me too and I'm a beer guy first and foremost.

[scottranda]

I took a class in college called "Wines and Vines". It was through the horticulture department. I was a business major. Wines and Vines was the best class I ever took. 😆 <<tiny bit of sarcasm, tiny bit of truth>>

[scottranda]

RonB post-millennia class 😃 you were, what, very-pre-millennia??

[Finster]

Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark 😄

[RonB]

Absolutely! ('70)

[CandySueQ]

April 19, 1999 my Mom passed away suddenly. As the only daughter (whose life in Dallas was shutting down anyway), I moved to Arkansas to live with Dad. We developed a number of regular activities, pizza night on Tuesdays and steak night on Fridays. Dad was a wine snob. He didn't like wine that wasn't French. Steak night included steak cooked on the grill, mushrooms cooked in butter, baked potato, tossed salad, French baguette with camembert or brie cheese (after dinner with poached in cognac pear) along with a French vintage. When Mouton-Cadet (a Rothschild vintage) was discovered, it became our favorite. After dinner, a bas Armagnac with the pear went very smoothly.

When I started competing in BBQ contests in 2003, Friday became the day before leaving to travel to cook. I often researched out wine sellers at the places I'd be looking for French red wines.

Thanks for asking! This is a lovely walk thru my memories.

[smokin fool]

Mouton-Cadet was always an apres ski favorite after a day on the slopes.
Your right this is bringing up memories....

[Troutman]

I love most Northern Cali reds but lately have been going French myself. Bordeaux’s and chateauneufs hold my attention of late.

[Jfrosty27]

Never did find a liking for wine. Just not my thing.

[smokin fool]

Not a thing wrong with that either.

[rlozinak]

When I was married, I would usually cook dinner for us. We decided we needed to spice up the dinner and I started buying dry red wine. Cabernet savuoign. I can't spell worth shit. But anyway we like to drink the wine with our dinner. Become a regular thing. My dad liked his wine with dinner, I figure that is were the idea came from.

[smokin fool]

My parents never served wine with dinner so wine was an unknow to me until into my 20's.
Even to this day I'm more apt to pour a glass of milk than a glass of wine at dinner.
But I figure I did narrow the gap over the years.

[au4stree]

I've always liked red wine, probably gravitate more towards a nice Cab than Pinot or merlot. Recently, with it getting warmer, I've been partaking in more white wine, particularly Chardonnay. I guess the older I've gotten, the less my stomach can tolerate beer. I was always a beer guy, love all kinds, but I just can't drink them without serious bloating and such....

To answer the question, my taste for reds came from my uncle who we really only got to see on holidays. He always brought a couple bottles of wine to our family dinners. When I was old enough, I got to try them out. He loved the reds and that's just what I got started on....

[smokin fool]

Got the tee shirt on the serious bloating and such....

[Murdy]

Both my mom and my wife are big wine drinkers, so I got to sample a lot over the years and eventually formed my own tastes.

[Attjack]

I started with reds. Merlot was my favorite at first. Then Cabernet Sauvignon replaced Merlot. Today, it's Pinot Noir, and I enjoy most reds. White wines took longer to warm up to for me. They generally have to be dry or I may have to pass. But if I'm not drinking red wine I'll probably reach for a rosé.

[Troutman]

I’ve run the gambit from Boones Farm and MD2020 to a French Chateauneuf du pape and puked them all at some point. What I have discovered is the better wines have less impurities and leave me with less of a hangover. That almost is as important to me as the taste.

[smokin fool]

Also take into consideration most if not all wines contain Sulphites.
I believe as a preservative, I’m not a fan.

[Attjack]

Well, good luck finding wine without sulfates.

[smokin fool]

Yeah, not happening

[RonB]

I have the bitter gene, so hoppy beers and dry wines don't work for me. I drank mostly whites until my wife found a red that's not the least bit dry.

[smokin fool]

Sounds like you have the same tastes as my wife, she’s prefers a white wine for those reasons.
Just in the past few years has she found newer reds she likes.

[smokin fool]

I think most of us gravitated to French wines in the beginning because they were, well....French.... and France did a mighty fine marketing job of they’re wine.
France, Italia and Greece would be the birth place of winemaking for centuries.
As my wine journey continued I became a North American wine snob, primarily Cali wine then our own Niagara Step wine varieties and now Erie North Shore wines.
Been quite the journey and is certainly not over....

[Huskee]

Growing up I thought wine was white zinfandel (that pink spoiled Kool Aid stuff) that's what my mom & aunts always had when they did have wine. When I was of age I bought a bottle of Wild Vines blackberry merlot, because to me at the time it was real because it was red! I thought it was great. After 6mo, roughly, it too began to taste like Kool Aid. I moved up in the world to a box of something which I kept in my fridge. No idea what it was, but it was a "real red" wine to me because it wasn't fruity!

Like the average druggy, I soon began experimenting with the harder & harder stuff. Woodbridge was a favorite at the time. I experimented with whites for a year or so but wasn't ever enamored with them.

I also never got the connection to wine and food, it was never a part of a meal for me it was just 'a glass of something in the evening', the opposite of coffee. Once I had someone explain that wine & food pairing isn't just some ritual snobs do, it actually affects the flavor of the wine and how it feels in your mouth, and I started tasting it with sharp cheese and salami & jerky, then I was hooked. It became less a beverage and more an experience.

I thought I liked grocery store cabernet sauvignons until I had some real California and French reds, and wow! Grocery store is often garbage (not always, there are many great sleepers), but typically to me they're too gentle and jammy. Eventually I built up a favorites list and can help the younger guys in my family who I see making the same progression I made.

[holehogg]

Both my parents drank wine and mom liked the stuff, a lot. Dad did red (although whiskey was his thing) and mother only white. I drank whatever I got my hands on ;-). I inherited my dad's genes and prefer red. Never put my nose up to a white when offered though.
We do get some seriously good South African wines.

[CaptainMike]

I don't believe I've ever tried or seen a SA wine hereabouts. Obviously, Johannesburg Riesling is a SA varietal, and I've certainly had US produced JR's. I'll have to keep my eyes open for some. If I understand history correctly, establishing vineyards and other supplies was one of the reasons the Dutch initially colonized SA.

[holehogg]

Correct on the Dutch.

[smokin fool]

Two Oceans has a Cab Sav Merlot available here and a Pinot Grigio that is a quite passable white.
Probably the best value at the LCBO.

[CaptainMike]

Born and raised in wine country and worked in the vineyards as a kid/young man so I came by it naturally. However, in my mid-twenties I had a girlfriend that worked in marketing for the Fetzer Vineyards family and occasionally I would tag along with her for family cellar tastings. This was with the owners, winemakers and marketing folks and most were just regular, unpretentious and hard working people. They taught me a LOT about tasting wine, what to look for, and when and how a wine might be turning. I'm sure most would be surprised to learn how much wine on store shelves falls into that "turning" category. Still very drinkable, good even, but not something you'd want to cellar for very long.

With that, I developed an appreciation for many varietals from whites to rose' to light reds (not my favorite) to big juicy reds that stain your teeth and make you gleek (some of my favorites). However, the very best wines I have ever had are winemaker's blends. Oftentimes they are just experiments that turn into really, really good wines, but they fail to meet marketing goals and are just doled out to friends and associates. That stuff will make you a believer!!

But the almost universal take home message that virtually any grape grower or winemaker will tell you is to drink what you like and don't pay too much attention to the hype.

[Huskee]

Yup. Just like a pizza- just cuz someone says pineapple and ham is good doesn't mean you should like it. Drink what you like and we'll all be happy.

[smokin fool]

Have to admit I'm jealous of that kind of introduction and education of wines, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall there.
Agree on the winemakers blends, I have learned from touring Niagara wineries is the wines they ship for store purchase are great wines in they're own right but the real vintage wines are sold in the boutique stores every winery operates. That's where you find the vintners best vintages.
Your going to pay a premium for them but they are well worth the effort.

[58limited]

"But the almost universal take home message that virtually any grape grower or winemaker with tell you is to drink what you like and don't pay too much attention to the hype. "

That says it all.