So I had this brilliant idea to add some sort of blog to our new website. It all sounded good until I actually had to sit down and write something. Since we’re introducing you to our site and to our store, where we sell wine and food, logically that would be a good place to start. So let’s start with some ramblings about wine. First off, a question we get asked a lot is “How do I learn more about wine?” Good question but an even simpler answer—drink more! It does sound easy but if you really want to learn about wine you need to try lots of different things. We find a lot of people stick with the wines their comfortable with, Merlot, Shiraz or Chardonnay. Not too risky, nothing hard to pronounce on the labels. And that’s okay. But if you really want to learn you need to experiment and stray outside your comfort zone. Try a Kerner from Alto Adige; an Aligote from Burgundy or a Marsanne from Santa Barbara. Drink a Narello Mascallese from Sicily; a Carignan from France or a Pinotage from South Africa. The point is, to really learn, you need to taste a wide variety of wines from a wide range of growing regions. As important as this is, it’s perhaps even more important to try wines from the great regions of the world. These would include wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley, Piedmont and Champagne to name a few. Why is this important? Because these are the reference point regions, the places and the wines that winemaker’s in all the other places look to for example and inspiration. If you know what good Bordeaux tastes like then it makes it much easier to understand Napa Valley cab. Trying Sancerre gives you a reference for sauvignon Blanc. Moreover, these winemakers (and marketing folks) like to compare their wines to more famous versions. Last night we drank a bottle of American Pinot Noir and on the back label they wrote that it was a ‘Burgundy-inspired wine’. How can you understand what Burgundy-inspired is if you have no reference for a good Burgundy? Tasting all these wines might not make you a wine expert but it will give you a great breadth of knowledge about the world’s wines. It will also help hone your palate to be able to compare and contrast wines flavors and aromas and to have a ‘log’ of the wines you’ve tasted. To take it to the next level, drink these wines in conjunction with reading about wine and looking at maps of wine regions. Now you’re getting into hard-core studying not unlike somebody studying to pass the Sommelier test. But even if you’re not interested in taking it that far, working your way around the globe via wine tasting is a great way to learn about wine. And there’s never been a better time to do it. Today there are more great wines, more new and exciting places making wine and it’s easier than ever to find these wines. Better get started.