Ready for a wine writing exercise?
Over the weekend a post from wine blog The Academic Wino caught my attentoin: What Wine Changed Your Life?: A Brief Exercise from the 2015 Symposium for Wine Writers . I quickly scanned for the exercise and waited till I’d done my time before reading the curator’s narrative.
The wine writing exercise…
>> Set a timer for 5 minutes.
>> Write about the wine that changed your life.
I set my timer and here’s what came out:
It was called Clay Station Petite Sirah from Lodi, Calif. I was waiting tables at a Denver-area restaurant. They had us taste the food and the wine specials so we could better sell them to customers. I am sure it was a fruity oak bomb. I really don’t recall. I just remember that I loved it at first sip. But, it wasn’t just the wine in my mouth that made me love it. My love expanded in seeing what the wine allowed me to do. I’m not talking about liquid courage. I sold the crap out of that wine. I loved it so much I would recommend it to every customer who wanted a red wine. I sold it by the glass, by the bottle, to couples, to singles, to wine lovers, to beer drinkers, and everyone in between. The most fascinating thing to me was that my customers actually loved it, too. I can’t even imagine what my non-wine-knowing-26-year-old sales pitch could possibly have been to sell the amount of wine that I did back then. I didn’t know crap about wine. I couldn’t taste anything but grapes on the palate or smell them on the nose. I just knew that I liked it. And, my energy was so contagious that it got other people excited to try it. And, they liked it. They really, really liked it. That Clay Station Petite Sirah taught me that the real beauty in wine is in the sharing and the experience. And, that I could make people happy with wine. With that, I was hooked.
After my timer beeped I read The Academic Wino’s writing exercise. And, then I went back through mine. Despite the world of wine being so focused on individual wines and the associated numbers, both writings were about the feelings and experiences that wine evokes.
Don’t get me wrong, I love when I am blessed with sharing an old bottle of something extra special. But, the true beauty is not really in the points, the price, or the vintage. It’s about the sense of community that comes with opening a bottle and sharing it with others. It makes every wine experience feel like that first sip.
#That1stSip
#That1stSipI’d love to read prose from some of my favorite wine bloggers and writers. So, I’m nominating five to do the wine writing exercise. When you have finished yours, nominate five more people. Tag your post with #That1stSip so we can read the stories of our fellow wine lovers.
#That1stSip Wine Writing Challenge Nominations from Girl’s Gotta Drink:
- Jeff Burrows, FoodWineClick
- Jennifer Martin, Vino Travels ~ An Italian Wine Blog
- Diana Zahuranec, Wine Pass Italy
- Cathy Huyghe, Hungry for Wine
- Benjamin North Spencer, American Wine Writer
Song Pick! At Last, Etta James
