Ways to Learn About Wine Without Going Broke

I can not tell you how many times I tell people about my wine blog and get the response, 'I've always wanted to learn more about wine.' Half the time I do believe this is uttered as a polite response indicating only a passing interest in my blog, but the other half I believe it to be true. I think most people who I come in contact with would like to know more about wine and have some fun wine experiences, but they do not necessarily know where to start. I had a lot of the same feelings at first. Wine can seem overwhelming, expensive, pretentious, and let's face it a really low priority. But I have begun to learn a tremendous amount about wine for relatively little cash flow, and the effort involved has paid dividends in the fact that it is all about fun and leisure. Today I present to you a couple of ways that you, or your hesitant peers, can learn about wine without having to invest too much time or money. (Warning, once you start you may become more willing and interested in investing a little time and money)

1. You MUST read. There is such a tremendous amount of information available to you that will help put wine in context and break down regions, grape varietals, labels, tastes, pricing, pairings and on and on. It is vital to be familiar with terms that put what you encounter in context. It would be very expensive to initially get your hands on all types of wine from around the world. But for $20 you can get Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible, or Jancis Robinson's The Oxford Companion to Wine for around $40. Either of these books will provide information on all the major wine regions in the world, and what they do there. I literally pick it up and read a quick chapter from The Wine Bible a couple days a week. I have learned a tremendous amount from this, for very little investment. However the next step then becomes vitally important, because it does me no good to be able to explain that in a riesling from Alsace you can expect to get flint, if I don't know what that means:

2. You MUST taste. This can be where a little bit of effort is required to keep yourself within a budget. You can find inexpensive examples of many varietals, but will probably have to skip entire high-end regions if holding to a budget. Be very purposeful in what wine you spend money on, working your way through a wide variety of wines with diligence. Always read about the wine that you are trying and seek to find the flavors and nuances that it provides. Be willing to relax and understand that it will take a long time to get an understanding of the wines available from around the world. Share the cost of trying different wines by finding (or even starting) a wine tasting club. In this club each person provides one wine, but everyone is able to try all the wines that are brought. So for your $10-$25 investment you are getting a very wide understanding of wine. Keep the topics interesting and varied and you will learn a lot, quickly. A great example of such a group, active in Los Angeles and San Francisco, is the Young Winos, but you can do something similar with your friends, family, or co-workers that does not have to be so large or organized.

3. You MUST interact. It is so easy to find others who are interested in wine online and around in your community. Find a couple of wine blogs that you enjoy, and follow some wine related tweeps on twitter. Allow discussions around wine to become a small part of your daily routine. I dove deep into the world of wine and social media, but you do not have to. Just observing what others are saying and doing exposes you to a tremendous amount of experience that you will learn from. Add a weekly podcast on wine to your iPod and you will be amazed at how quickly you will become familiar with wineries and producers that are worth your time and money.

4. You MUST find yourself a senile old widow whose deceased husband has an amazing wine cellar of which she is clueless to the value. You must then seduce her and become her live-in that is constantly fighting her adult children who think you are there just to take advantage of her and inherit the wine. You must then argue that the implication is absolutely ridiculous, that you are there for the money, at which point they will probably back off. This is really the only way I can think of to get to taste some well-stored First Growth Bordeaux from great historic vintages, and other things that until you taste you really don't know anything about wine.

My whole point is that it doesn't necessarily take a lot to expand your wine knowledge. If it is something you have 'always wanted to know more about' then just DO it. Wine is a dividend paying hobby, and is meant to be fun and pleasurable. A little investment can go a long way in making it more approachable, more intellectual, and more enjoyable.