(Published Sunday Times February 2002)
Whilst having a wonderful time at a wine gathering recently, someone who I had just met inquired why I was drinking my wine rather than tasting it. 'Are you not supposed to spit your wine out' she asked.
After convincing myself that she was not joking, I explained that wine was made to be enjoyed between friends, primarily with food in social gatherings, and that when wine professionals hold a tasting, it has nothing to do with enjoying wine. .Tasting wine is work, drinking wine is enjoyment.
To enjoy wine you don't have to be, or pretend to be a wine expert . Many wine snobs will have you believe that to enjoy wine you need to be a farmer, a chemist an art lover, a millionaire and god knows what else. They give you the idea that you need to spend your life reading about wine and to know who Robert Parker is and who Max Schubert was. In fact all you need is a bit of concentration on what the wine in front of you smells and tastes like, and if you are eating, whether the 'ensemble' of the flavours of the wines and food combine well together. It is a bit like enjoying a nice piece of music. You don't have to be Lucia Micallef or Brian Schembri to enjoy Mozart!!!!!!!.
As happens in many aspects of life, if you start taking an interest in what you are drinking, you will naturally, become more interested in the subject and there will probably come a time when as they say, a 'glass of wine touches a part of you that no other wines had touched before'. This 'revelation of wine' will make you want to know everything there is to know about wine and you will go through a 'formation period'. We say, 'you start feeling wine'. At this stage you will start reading specialist books and magazines which will help you understand why certain wines taste, age, cost, etc. like they do.
As wine is very subjective, you will become aware of many conflicting arguments, with experts contradicting each other and wildly varying opinions that can seem very confusing and off putting. New world versus the old. Traditional as opposed to modern wine making, the use of technology etc. all fire the debate.
However, the important thing to do at this stage is to acquire enough knowledge to be able to form your own opinion about a particular wine. It is also advantageous if you find a couple of commentators or writers that you like, trust and define with, and use their opinion as a sort of reference. But be careful. The aim is for you to be able to form your own informed opinion, not to remember and recite what some expert said or thinks.
Let me tell you what I mean.
Amongst the wines I tasted (drunk) last week were Latour 1981 and Clos de Corton 1986 (Faiveley). Before opening these bottles I looked them up in some of the books I have. Of course Peppercorn knew what he was writing, but most of the more common books gambled that the Latour would be 'Austere', and the Clos de Corton, 'past it' . Of course did not pay much attention to this and infact the Latour was great, the Clos de Corton perfect.
Now it is true that 1981 was not a great year in Bordeaux and compared to great years like 1982 or 1978 Latour, lacked a bit of concentration. But the truth is that on the day of tasting, I only had one bottle of Latour and the intention was not to 'prize fight' it with any other wine but to enjoy what it had to offer. And enjoyable it was. Hints of preserved fruit on the nose with no agressivity. Playful bursts of herbs intertwined with soft tannins. Wonderfully balanced and harmonious (fruit,alc,acid). Medium weight with very complex minerally flavours, in line with what the vintage had to offer.
The same for Clos de Corton. 1986 was also not a great year in the Cotes de Beaune and compared to 1988, for example, it lacked the finesse etc. But on the day it gave us enormous pleasure, marrying very well with a sort of stew of Guinea fowl.
Now I am not saying that you cannot be assured of the quality of 'Sassicaia', simply because you have never tasted it. What I am saying is, don't feel that you have to talk about 'Petrus' to prove that you are a wine lover. Tell your friends about the little discovery you made at Lm 4.00. The enjoyment you got from a new Chianti on the market. And if you do manage to taste a great wine, and feel like you want to tell the world about it, do so by all means. But I can assure you that there is nothing more boring than a bunch of 'experts' talking about great wines that they have never tasted.
The message is very simple.
The appreciation and enjoyment of wine should be and is, one of life's most accessible, approachable and affordable luxuries. Wine can lift your spirits and enhance your quality of life. It can take you on a journey through many cultures and countries......whilst probably discovering yourself.
Don't worry if you are not able to speak the many languages of wine. It is enough to feel. Remember that what is important, is to know how to enjoy wine, not how to talk about it.
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