My Personal Experience with Wine Thus Far!

    Thus far, I have dipped my toes into the water of the wine world. I have been to a few wineries, one near my home in Massachusetts, Nashoba Valley Winery, as well as a couple here in Virginia, which are the New River Winery and Vineyard, and Chateau Morrisette. I have had pleasant experiences at all three. At Nashoba, I did a formal tasting, where I chose 8 wines to try, including a Port. However, I chose primarily all sweet/dessert wines (because that is currently my comfort zone and my favorite wine). These were paired with cheese and apples. On my second visit, I chose 2 glasses of wine, a couple of my favorites from the tasting, also sweet, the Strawberry Rhubarb wine and the Peach. At the New River Vineyard, I opted for a house made wine slushy, a mix of two of their flavors. However, I have been there previously and shared a flight. My most recent winery visit, which was last weekend, was to Chateau Morrisette in Floyd. My boyfriend and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We took a private tour of the property and learned all about the process, tried many complimentary tastings, and enjoyed a flight. Again, I opted for primarily sweet wines as that is what I tend to enjoy the most. However, I branched out towards the end of our visit and decided to purchase two bottles of wine recommended to me by the owner after an extensive and informative conversation and sampling with her. One was a dry red, their famous "Black Dog" wine and the other was their "Christmas White" which is a blended wine that I enjoyed a sample of prior to buying. 

    Prior to the start of my wine journey this semester, I tended to almost always opt for mixed drinks, often fruity ones, except for the occasional bottle of moscato, or the more embarrassing, Barefoot Fruitscato, in a variety of flavors. I have always enjoyed rather sweet beverages, and so far have mostly steer cleared from drier wines, except for a couple dry reds that I tried complimentary tastings of at the Winery. I am aware of my obvious preference for sweet wines, but I aim to branch out and try drier wines throughout this course and hope to find some new favorites with less residual sugar. 

    Even though the semester has just begun, I feel like I have already learned so much. One of those being, what temperate various types of wines are traditionally served at. I found this information a bit intimidating, as well as the idea of a rather warm glass of wine. The idea of a chilled glass of wine, no matter what kind, sounds far more appealing to me, but that is also something I hope to step outside of my comfort zone with this semester. I would like to learn about storing wine once it's opened, specifically, how long an opened bottle of wine can be stored in the fridge, etc. I would also like to learn about how to choose wines at the store or at a restaurant, specifically ones that are sweet, or on the sweeter side, while not being as sugary as a moscato. Although I do plan to branch out and experiment with dry ones, I am also realistic about my taste. I am really looking forward to diving into this course, learning all I can about wine, and stepping outside of my wine-comfort zone!