At last Eric Asimov has started really speaking my language. For those of you who didn't get a chance to read the paper yesterday here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/dining/11pour.html

The basic premise of his article was that if you really want to learn about wine you should go to your neighborhood wine store and ask one of the salespeople to pick out a case of wine, both red and white, and then go home and drink the wine. I was just talking to a friend of mine about how difficult it is to taste wine and really understand it, at formal tastings. Your house, a friends house, anywhere you can comfortably relax and eat and drink is the best place to taste and learn about wine. The real deep dark secret to wine is that it is ABSOLUTELY SUBJECTIVE. Before all two of you readers get angry and start emailing me look at what I said.

Wine is absolutely subjective.

This doesn't mean that all wine is good, should be drunk or for that matter should ever been made. Rather, that I truly believe that every wine will find a fan. Yes the more you know about wine the more you will acquire the necessary tasting skills to appreciate intensely aged Barolos and bizarre whites from the Loire, however one of my fondest wine drinking memories involves a 5 liter box of Beringer Blush and I think that I loved that wine. So there, wine is subjective and not just a little contextual. But back to the original point.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting the cases that we would choose for you were you to decide to attend the Asimov Dining room tasting school. If you are so inclined let us know and we will throw one together for you. However since we are so tag happy here at Vine we will also tag each wine with the name of the wine, where it is from and what grape(s) are in it. Take some notes and let us know.

Labels: events, wine culture