The WHY of it all

My passion for wine has always been hard for me to explain to people. I tend to use the fact that this interest hadn't possessed me until three-ish years ago to explain my inability to articulate the WHY of it all. The truth is I spent most of my life aimless, I never had a career goal (aside from wanting to be a ballerina-doctor when I was five). That pointlessness is what led to me dropping out of college and winding up in a miserable, dead-end job in San Antonio at a liquor store (for a company who shall remain nameless). The almost two years I spent there were so utterly wretched that I still tell people that shoveling manure would have been a step up. Long story short, it was awful, but if not for that job I might not have discovered my passion for wine.

Wine is the only thing (and I hate to use the term 'thing'... it's so much more than that) I have ever truly been interested in. I love everything about it and I find the entire subject utterly fascinating. I still feel like I'm very much a novice on the subject (especially considering that I used to think Yellowtail was high-end when I was in college), but my knowledge and love for the vine has grown so much, especially in the last year. That's mainly thanks for having incredible mentors who supported and nurtured my desire to learn about wine.

It's hard to appreciate wine without having people to appreciate it with and I've been lucky to find a few such people. I remember once, a couple years ago, trying to explain my love for wine to a guy I was dating. I gushed on and on about how I thought wine was absolutely amazing until I finally realized he didn't understand anything I was saying and didn't have the slightest interest in trying to understand it. All he cared about was: wine = drunk... and that simply didn't work for me.

Since then I've found better people to share my passion (and wine) with and that really is the best part. No matter if you're opening a gorgeous Condrieu or spicy Syrah, it's the people you share that bottle with that make it memorable.