Wine For Newbies

It’s hard to believe that Wine Blogging Wednesday is four years old! This month’s edition is hosted by WBW’s father, Lenn, over at Lenn Devours. The theme for this month’s event asks wine bloggers to go back and taste the wine that they first encountered, first started drinking, first sat up and took notice of, etc. 

[HAL 9000 voice] I’m sorry, Lenn. I’m afraid I can’t do that. [/HAL 9000 voice]

If I wanted to give a lawyer’s answer, I’d say that I can’t find that particular wine–the vintage is long sold out. But I don’t think Lenn will accept that response (and I probably wouldn’t, either). So I’m not going to offer this effort to duck out of the event. 

But I will have to say that I really can’t re-try those wines. Not because they are unavailable in their current vintages, but simply because I can’t bring myself to drink them. I just can’t drink those lousy things that served as my introduction. If I could have found the current vintage of my real “root wine,” however, I would have gladly given it a try. 

Like many of you, my entry into the wine world was affected by the boom in the late 1980s fueled by White Zinfandel. It’s dry yet seemingly sweet, has no tannins to speak of, and can be had cheaply. I had all sorts of kind of stuff like this: Sutter Home’s, Beringer’s, Fetzer’s. I drank a little Sutter Home Solara in the early 1990s, a demi sec type of red wine that was (and still is) wholly forgettable. 

I believe, though, that the wine that tapped my building wine enthusiasm and turned it into a full-blown passion was Geyser Peak Merlot Sonoma 1995. Wine Spectator gave the wine a score of 86 (back when I thought scores were important and I looked it up after the fact). As readers of this blog know, my wife and I are Disney enthusiasts (to one degree or another–I think our enthusiasm is a healthy one since we don’t over-do it like some do, but it’s certainly more than others’). Sometime in 1996 or 1997 probably, we were visiting the Walt Disney World Resort and had dinner at one of the restaurants. The restaurant has had a variety of awards over the years, so it’s not your typical tourist restaurant with burgers and fries. 

The featured wine for that evening was the ‘95 Geyser Peak Merlot. We ordered some, and it was quite good. We liked it’s approachability, its aromas of cherries and spice, its nice color, layered flavors and decent finish. It was this wine that made me wake up. After we returned home, we bought a few bottles. Before long, I was buying my very first wine by the case. Some of the stuff was shared, some was hoarded, but all was consumed eventually. I tried some other Geyser Peak wines after that. The Sauvignon Blanc they produced was quite good for a year or two (and at $9/bottle, it was a real steal). The Reserve Alexandre meritage was rather good, as was some of the county-designated Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Alas, over time, Geyser Peak grew to be a huge operation, and in my view, its quality began to decline. While it would still produce the occasional very good wine, most of it was falling into the “it’s okay” category. 

As I think back across the years now, Disney World (and Disneyland) have turned me onto quite a few wines that I sought out back home. More than quite a few, actually. I doubt I could ever list them all. But I will remember that ‘95 Merlot as my awakening. It was followed by wines from La Crema, Stonestreet, and other decent producers. Even today, I still look forward to seeing the wine lists at our favorite restaurants at Disney resorts. Most of them are selected by people who take that job very seriously, and they produce some fine lists. It’s nice to see what knowledgeable people are buying for their restaurants and offering to their customers.

For a while, I made it a habit to ask for a copy of the wine lists, and several of the restaurants still print out copies on a daily or weekly basis, making it easy to take the list home. These days I’m more content to study the wine list and write the wines we try into my notebook. Taking the lists home doesn’t do much good–since Indiana gets only 5% of the wines available in this country, I was usually frustrated in not being able to find wines on the list that looked interesting. The lists just ended up in the trash. 

This WBW event has produced a longer article than I anticipated, and it was a nice retrospective for me. Hats off to Lenn for a great theme!

What were your early wines? Even if you’re not a blogger, you can join in the WBW action by leaving a comment.

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