Op-Ed: Be Curious About Wine, Not Afraid of It

By Cole Swanson
January 23, 2025

Stereotypes proclaim that wine is a drink only for sophisticates, connoisseurs, those who are so educated they know the vintage of a wine just by smelling it. The industry has been plagued by this thought process because there are a select few who act pretentious, giving alcoholic grape juice a bad name. But in reality, the vast majority are people who like wine for the sake of liking wine.

Those who can detect the origin of a wine by a whiff are trained professionals. I am certainly not at that level and, though they are out there, I don’t know anyone who is. These people have studied to become Master Sommeliers and/or Masters of Wine. In the world, there are 279 and 416 respectively.

The rest of us, well, there's only so much to learn before all we can do is simply enjoy what’s in our glass. It’s okay to enjoy something without being an expert in it – but maybe that’s just my insecurities coming to light.

I’m especially reminded about this at the end of the day, when I’m tired of being a server, and all I want is to sip an easy Chianti. I’m not thinking about or studying its profile or flavors. I’m enjoying bending my knees for the first time that day, and turning off my brain, hoping that the 12-dollar bottle I bought from the grocery store does the trick.

There’s no need to speculate about a bottle’s origins or try to decipher every nuance. Does the wine taste good at that moment? That’s good enough. Like with food, drinking wine is about enjoyment. It’s a beverage synonymous with cheersing and pairing with a home-cooked meal. It’s about wine nights with friends or making a charcuterie board and opening your favorite bottle. Wine is made for those with little money and too much money – some of the best are less than $30.00.

If all you taste is delicious grapes when sipping, I applaud you. However, if you are interested in learning how to taste wine and want to know more about tannins, acidity, and body, take into account that when you start, you’re starting from ground zero or close to it.

When it comes to devoting time to learn about this enormous subject, I believe authentic curiosity is what sets apart the humble from the pretentious. Those who claim to be sophisticated are those who buy and talk about wine as if they are trying to raise their pedestal are typically the ones whose voice has to always be the loudest. They thrive off glorification due to a false sense of purpose. They hold hostage the purity of learning for learning’s sake. To them, it’s a game of who’s better.

Be curious. Admit to knowing nothing when first beginning to learn. Not a single soul, except for those in the category just described, will look down at you from the bridge of their nose. Every single person who is a wine professional or knowledgeable about wine in any regard knew nothing from the start. You cannot wake up with a textbook of information in your head. If that were the case, I’d probably go to sleep now just so I could wake up tomorrow knowing how to play the piano.

Rather than comparing your knowledge to others, be excited to learn, because you may eventually become like those you revere.

All this said, you don’t have to acquire a single bit of knowledge to enjoy wine. You can go through life in bliss, content with not stressing about what a Cabernet Sauvignon tastes like in Bordeaux compared to Australia. The only thing that matters is discovering which wines you enjoy the most and why. That is the reason I created this blog.

I personally find wine fascinating beyond just enjoying it, and I don’t even know from where this interest derived. I just decided one day that I had never been more curious about a subject. At first I was terrified. I was working in a tasting room beside those I thought were better than me and far more educated because they could speak with confidence and knew what malolactic fermentation was. I didn’t think that I could ever know as much as them.

But by owning that fear, I allowed myself to ask questions, and my coworkers were more than happy to teach me.

As I continued my professional studies, I discovered there is so much more to wine than tasting it. It broadened my curiosity of the world and of subjects I wouldn’t have normally cared about. I’ve been able to learn about geography and farming; never would I have imagined to find soil so interesting. I’ve learned about the science of alcohol, the senses, and the structure of food as it relates to wine. Most importantly, I was able to move on from not knowing what I didn’t know, and to knowing the right questions to ask. That’s what learning is all about for me – an endless amount of questions to never dull your curiosity.

I’m no longer intimidated by the word ‘nuanced’ either. As my lips form that term, I do find myself questioning if I am slipping into pretentiousness. But when considering its rightful use for this subject, I’m thinking beyond what’s in my glass. I’m referring to the entire process of winemaking.

From the vineyard to the bottle, everything about this industry seems like scientific magic. Half of winemaking is about farming and the other half is about chemistry, and though those two are learned practices, when you find a bottle that makes you pause, it really might seem like there’s more to it. How can a fermented grape that has aged in a barrel taste like blueberries, cassis, eucalyptus, baking spices, be savory and smoky, and then have the ability to age in a bottle, sometimes for decades, and evolve into something it wasn’t when it was created? Can wine mature like we do? I might be anthropomorphizing too much.

I could go off about how particular viticulturists are when deciding where to plant grapes. How climatic conditions and yearly weather patterns impact farming decisions and the profile of each vintage. Without great farming practices, there wouldn’t be much good wine. Anyone can be a winemaker, but not anyone can make great wine, so I do know that there’s more to it than just placing bunches of grapes into a vat.

Romanticism? Definitely. But anyone who is passionate about anything will show similar affection.

Like when starting to learn any subject, imposter syndrome will attempt to deter you. You might even believe experts will use their knowledge as a tool to be contemptuous. But aside from the few who have marked wine as a drink for the prestigious, no one truly cares if you know nothing. They will most likely even try and help you to learn.

A bottle will not stay sealed if you cannot pronounce the words on the label. Both the uneducated and pretentious open a bottle in the same manner and drink from glasses. Though each other's idea of enjoyment may differ, both are still just drinking wine.