Wednesday, January 27, 2016

A Class About Wine? Why Not!

     First, I want to introduce myself. My name is Katie, and I'm a senior psychology major. I am a sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and a piccolo rank captain in the Marching Virginians! I am an aspiring marine mammal trainer, and love anything having to do with the beach or the ocean.
     Now that you know a little bit about me, I guess we should get into the topic at hand, wine. I don't have a lot of experience with wine, but I do drink it sometimes. My first experience with wine was at my grandparent's house at Christmas when I was a senior in high school. My grandparents and my parents decided I was old enough to try it and have a glass with dinner if I wanted to. To this day I couldn't tell you what kind of wine it was except that it was a red wine and I absolutely hated it. I took one sip and didn't touch wine again for a long time. I started drinking wine more when I got to college. In fact, for a long time, wine has been my go to drink of choice. I wouldn't say I have an extensive experience with wine though. 
     I haven't tried that many different types of wine because when I find something I like, I tend to stick with it for a while. Much like many other college girls, I started out with moscato. I loved the fact that it was super sweet, and not bitter at all. I really love the sweet taste, but after a while of drinking it, it really started to get to me. While I am not big on trying new things, and I hate to spend money on a whole bottle of something I might not even like, I needed to find something else that wasn't so sickeningly sweet it gave me a headache. I then moved on to riesling, still sweet, but not overwhelming like moscato. I love riesling. I love the crisp refreshing taste, and I love that it is sweet but not overwhelmingly so. Occasionally, I'll drink chardonnay, but usually that's just when its my only choice. Recently however, I've started to branch out a little bit. 
     When I was preparing for the huge snow storm that recently hit, I decided I needed to buy some wine to get me through. I was walking through the wine section at Kroger, and I decided it was time to try something new. I was looking at the white zinfandels, and found one that was mixed with just a little bit of moscato, so I thought maybe that was a safety net, and decided to try it. I absolutely HATED it. It was so bitter, and I couldn't take more than a couple sips. Last night, I decided to branch out again and try something new, and I tried a sauvignon blanc. The first couple of sips were a struggle because it was a lot more dry than any of the other wines I like to drink, but the taste wasn't bad. After the first few sips, I actually really liked it! 
     In this course, I would really love to learn more about the process of making wine, and where different wines are made, what kind of grapes they use, and what really goes into making a wine have the undertones that many of them have. I would also like to learn ways of trying new wines that won't break the bank. I really would like to find something that isn't extremely expensive, but that still has a great taste. I also would like to branch out and maybe find a red wine that I might like. For now, I stick to white wines because I have yet to find a red wine that I've liked. I usually think that red wines are way too bitter, and I would love to find one that is more on the sweet side like the white wines I drink but still has those crisp fruity tastes. I am really excited to branch out of my comfort zone during this class and try new things and hopefully find some new wines that I can enjoy.

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