Why Should I Learn To Appreciate Wine?

Why do people continue to be interested in wine?

What keeps wine really quite interesting is that it's something that is progessing constantly. It is not stagnant like other beverages. They don't offer the enthusiasm that one can look forward to, of discovery, of adventure. If you had had wine back in the times predating Christ, with the Romans and the Greeks - wine was totally different. It was something that was intoxicating and magical. And to this day we are constantly moving forward. It's like science - it keeps on changing and offering more of a challenge, more of an intellectual experience, in the fact that here's not only history, but this is a chess game. You pick a wine and you're trying to understand how it plays a part in a meal, how it plays a part in a special occassion, or the moods of different people. May it be a business evening, may it be a romantic evening -- the wines will change. And it's a chess game. You figure out which ones are going to do and you kind of offer something more. It's incredible orchestration. And it's magical. You can't do that with Coca-Cola. You can't do that with vodka; it's always the same. Wine is constantly changing. It's exciting.

How did you get interested in wine?

I started off with wine totally intimidated, totally uncomfortable, couldn't pronounce cabernet-sauvignon to me sounded like cabaret, These words are tongue-twisters, how can you possibly do any of this? My favorite was, because I'm an old man but I'm an expert at this, there was a rosé called Lancer's, I thought it was in a crock at the time, but it offered something very magical, it offered something where it came from, it offered that experience even though being very young, to have a rosé being next to the water, having water just lapping up against the hull of a small boat was incredibly romantic, and it seemed like it enhanced the whole experience. With that I thought all wine was supposed to enhance everything, and I got passionate about it and I thought my god, what would one have to ever spend a lot of money. Here was something that was exciting, and I could kind of match it up with different things, and very quickly, I could tell the difference between three different types of rosés all costing under five dollars at that time. I got totally trapped, totally trapped, because there was history in where the different wines come from. There was a story to be told, a magical story, I felt like I was with Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls, this is my magical experience, and with that I was off on this incredible journey. I'm still on that path.

How does wine tell us more about who we are?

There are wines that reflect personalities. There are wines that reflect culture. There are wines that reflect every human emotion, just like the origins of people. You can go and acquire a wine from Spain, you can acquire a wine from Argentina, you can acquire a wine from Australia and all of them, even from the very same grape will offer a different sorry, offer a different characteristic and it's magical because that is when we get into talking about 'terror', which is sort of this elusive magical thing that's thrown out, and it's trying to be defined. It offers an identity. And that is special.