I can remember the days when a bottle of wine used to be something to get when I filled up my gas tank at 7-11. Oh, how my palate has expanded since then. It shows that anyone can go from things like gas station wine specials to Grand Crus. I can still remember the first time I decided to actually go into a wine shop to see what I had been missing. Very similarly to some of the customers that come into my shop now, I was tremendously overwhelmed. I wandered the aisles in amazement as to the variety that  was out there. At the time, my current wife was a new flame that I really wanted to impress with a great bottle of wine. I scoured the shelves looking at things that made little to no sense to me, eye balling labels waiting for something to jump out at me. Finally I came to the wines of Italy and figured it would pair well with the dinner that I was attempting to make for her. I finally decided on a Santa Margherita Chianti Classico mainly because it sounded fancy. Immediately upon opening the bottle I new that this was no 7-11 wine.

From the first sip we knew that wine was much much more than a Welch's grape with a 12% ABV.  As the night progressed and the wine opened up, we realized that wine was so much more complex than we thought. This lead us to trying other wines outside of our comfort zone, but we both still look back at that bottle as the ah-ha  moment in our wine tasting lives. Nowadays, we have expanded to all types of wines, but I am still learning and tasting new things, not just because of my job but because of my passion for wine. We still look back and laugh at how novice we used to be, but it just goes to show you that even a clueless wine drinker can become an avid wino with the right guidance. So my advice is to keep trying new things and don't be afraid to not like things, it's all part of developing your palate.

Cheers,

Mike Love, WIne Consultant at Store 52 in Ocoee