Melanie Wagner - Hello, Wine: The Most Essential Things You Need to Know About Wine

Copyright 2013 by Melanie Wagner.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-2967-9

Library of Congress has previously cataloged this title under ISBN 978-1-4521-1102-5

Designed by Albertson Design & Alice Chau.
Cover design by Dinah Fried.
Illustrations by Lucy Engelman.

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

for Christian

I set out to be a teacher; the wine part was a surprise turn. Postcollege, with one psychology degree and two years of teaching adorable but exhausting four-year-olds under my belt, I felt restless. I was living in a dump in San Francisco, scraping by on a steady diet of ramen noodles, when the idea of working with wine entered my consciousness.

One afternoon on the playground I asked the mother of one of my students what she did for a living. When she answered that she sold fine wine, bells went off in my head and my eyes got wide and sparkly. I remember thinking, Selling wine is a job? It had never occurred to me. I had always loved drinking wine (when I could afford it). A career in wine sounded irresistibly glamorous. I left my preschool gig giddy with the vision of a chic new life. However, my real-world adventures on the way to becoming a wine guru were rarely idyllic.

Promptly after my epiphany, I talked my way into a job I was thoroughly underqualified forselling fine wine for a top distributor. Seemingly overnight, I was knee-deep in elite circles of the industry, and I knew nothing about wine except that it was wet and it tasted good. If there had been a boot camp for wine, I would have eagerly enlisted; the road would have been more predictable and I would have at least had comrades to suffer alongside. Sadly, I was alone: a misfit. I still remember how embarrassing and uncomfortable it felt to be mocked by the snob sect.

My bumpkin status did come with a perk though. Because I was hobnobbing with top winemakers, importers, and restaurateurs, my aha moments with wine were bittersweetbitterly humbling as I was constantly reminded of how little I knew, yet sweet because I usually had an incredible glass of wine in my hand. Thankfully, passion and curiosity always seemed to conquer my pride. Maybe it was self-preservation, or the patience I had developed tending to those preschool tots, but I turned frustration with my own ignorance into an unrelenting drive to understand wine, and then to assist others in getting there on a (fingers crossed) less painful path.

During the past ten years, as a Certified Sommelier, writer, speaker, and teacher, Ive had the opportunity to educate many wine professionals and connoisseurs. My favorite students, however, are the ones who are just beginning to dive in: people whove had enough experience with wine to know that they are hooked and are eager to learn more. Of course, they want to understand why wine tastes like it does, but they also become empowered when I can provide them with practical, applicable wine infothings like how long a bottle stays fresh after opening, what screw caps say about the quality of the wine, and how much money you need to spend to get a decent bottle of pinot noir. It is my passion and privilege to champion this group on the road to becoming aficionados.

My calling to write this book emerged because my own school of hard knocks left me empathetic with wine rookies, and also because I saw a huge gap in the information being touted as an Introduction to Wine. Most often in this category, you find beautiful, articulate books that are insightful and accurate, but overwhelming to the beginner. I remember picking up some of them in my early days, and then promptly putting them back on the shelf. They were just too technical, too soon. On the flip side are pocket-size works that do an injustice to wine by oversimplifying it, setting the reader up for disappointment by promising them expert status in one hundred petite pages.

Theres a fine line between simplifying wine and reducing it to something less than it is, and also between respecting tradition and getting way too serious. I believe its possible to enjoy wine, study it in easily digestible chunks, and celebrate its endless intrigue all at the same time.

Think of this book as a gateway to wine. Just as preschool prepares you for the rough-and-tumble world of elementary education, consider this book a precursor to your forthcoming wine adventures.

These pages are the culmination of everything Ive learned during my years of mishaps and enlightenment on the wine route, condensed into what I feel are the most essential lessons you need to know nowat the beginning of your journey. Think of each chapter as a little wine love note from me to you. Together, they contain the most important nuggets of wine truth that Ive learned along the way, the secrets I wish someone had handed me when I was just starting out. I hope this book makes you smarter and more confident. I hope it makes you think and laugh, and that it ignites a desire to always continue learning more, so that your life is rich with the joy of wine.

Maybe you are brand new to wine, or maybe youve been drinking for years and have just decided that its time to step up your know-how. Either way, Im glad youre here, and the first thing I want to do is give you a big warm welcome into the wine world. Its exciting and deliciousyou are in for a treat.

As I see it, my job is to empower you with meaningful wine information (the stuff youre going to actually use) and to encourage you to feed your passion for learning about wine, so that it far outlasts this book. We begin with a little pregame prep; the first chapter lays out my plan for how to approach the enormity of the subject, and essential first steps to get started.

Wine has a justifiable reputation for being intimidating: theres a lot to know. All that knowledge can seem big and scary, and leave us feeling insecure. It might sound funny, but the first, most essential step to becoming confident with wine is to embrace that vulnerability, and prepare for a lifetime of learning. The sooner you can get comfortable with the magnitude of what there is to knowand content that you, in fact, do not need to master wine to relish itthe more you will enjoy your overall experience. You do not need to memorize all the communes in Bordeaux or which grapes are grown in Romania in order to properly swoon over a great bottle; thankfully, the pleasure of wine is not reserved for experts. While I am here to help you develop a sense of intimacy and comfort with wine, Ill also be the first to tell you that getting too technical can suck the romance right out of your glass. As you begin your education, I urge you to celebrate wines complexity and intrigue, and also to savor the trip. If you fall in love, you will be challenged, as much as you like, for the rest of your wine drinking days.

Here are just some of the ways in which this moving target will keep you curious, once shes captured your heart.

Wine is truly fascinating. Im not just talking about being intrigued by whats in the glass, but also the way in which it opens doors to learning about so many other things. A single bottle can inspire us to pick up a history book, learn about another culture, contemplate a scientific principle, enthuse over maps, or venture off to a new place. And the best part... you drink it!