Who or What Influenced Your Love of Wine?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about important influences in my life. As my mind wandered on this subject, naturally I got to thinking about wine and what influenced me to like the wines I love best.
I can think of several foods and beverages, which are among my very favorites and I was able to easily identify what influenced me to turn these into my favorites.
Coffee Influencer: Eldest Sister Leaving for my freshman year of college my eldest sister gave me a can of Medaglia d’Oro espresso coffee to take with me. She solemnly handed this can to me saying “Scott, you will need to learn to drink coffee in college so I’m giving you a can of very good coffee. The only thing you have to do is promise me you will learn to drink it the right way…black!” I did and I still love my coffee strong and black, plus a good espresso!
Spirits: I like a lot of different spirits. My favorites are Scotch, Rum, and Cachaça and each had a significant influencer.
Scotch Influencer: College I quickly learned none of my fraternity Brothers liked Scotch, so I realized it was the one booze I could buy and actually keep for myself! Back in those days it was Ballentine because I thought the bottle shape was cool. These days I tend towards Yamazaki, 12 year old.
Rum Influencer: Spring Break This influencer was totally different. I was on the very first foreign spring break trip I ever took while in high school. We were at a resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados. I had received a severe sunburn and was actually blistered on my shoulders. I met a fellow who had been stung by a jellyfish that day and had welts up and down his arms. We got to talking at the Manager’s Cocktail Party that night and were commiserating about our pains. He said “Scott, I know just the thing! The rum punch is free tonight so you have one for each of your blisters and I’ll have one for each of my welts. Being underage in the US, but ‘legal’ in Barbados I readily agreed with this hurting, but kindred spirit. In short, we did, and the last thing I recall that night was my head missing my hand when I went to say something at dinner and face planting in my prime rib. Ever since, Barbadian Mount Gay has been my rum of choice. As I still say “one sip and you’re in the islands!”
Cachaça Influencer: Unknown Barkeep This is the national drink of Brazil and it was on a trip to that amazing country when I first met up with what my traveling companion and best friend called ‘the green death’, formally known as the caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail. Cachaça is distilled from sugar cane and there are cachaça stills throughout the country, but especially in the state of Minas Gerais, in which I tried my first caipirinha. We dined that night at a fabulous Churrascaria and there was a bartender wandering the restaurant floor with a cart making fresh caipirinhas for whomever wanted one. I quit after eight, but let me tell you that bartender could muddle those limes just right and he made his drinks with only Valle Verde Cachaça, Brazil’s very best. Still love caipirinhas and still long for bottles of Valle Verde!
Italian food Influencer: Wife If you know, or follow, me you know exactly where this one is coming from. My wife was the daughter of a 100% Italian immigrant family. Not only was she talented and drop-dead gorgeous, but she was an amazing cook! As you can imagine from her heritage, Italian foods were her best plates! Growing up I had a great Mom. Loving, kind, always tried her best, but she couldn’t cook worth a plug nickel! Growing up I truly believed Italian food came from a can with that famous Ohioan on the label, Chef Boyardee! Honest! I really did! All my wife’s Italian dishes were winners, but once she made me homemade gnocchi, she had me locked in for life! Thankfully her Italian cooking wasn’t her only influence on me by any means!
Wine: This one actually has to be split between four influencers.
First Influencer: Crap Wine This was actually a negative influencer and it was a combo of wines of my frequently misspent youth. Living on the 99¢ shelf of the PLCB stores they held siren’s names such as Boone’s Farm, Annie Green Springs, MadDog 20/20, and their kin. They seduced me, taught me to hate wine for a long time!
Second Influencer: Wife’s grandfather His name was Mario Casagrande. Mario made his own wine in his basement ‘winery’ in northern Minnesota. It was his wine, which he loving referred to as Dago Red that brought me back around to wine. It was incredibly dry, intense, plentiful, and actually made with grapes shipped to him from the famous Mondavi wine family! My first glass I drank with Mario in his basement to be a good (hopefully) future grandson-in-law. I needed no such enticement after that and good, full bodied, lush reds are still my wine of choice!
Third Influencer: My Wife After my time cavorting with the first wine influencer above, I understandably became a beer drinker. My wife never gave up on me and continually worked with me to try new wines she would find and enjoy. The day her influence in this area won out was after work one day back in the mid-1980s. She had been enticed to buy a ‘new’ wine from her favorite wine shop. Arriving home, she met me in the kitchen and said to me “Honey, just try this. Right now!” I did and discovered how absolutely delicious that early ‘80s vintage Gundlach-Bundschu Merlot was!
Fourth Influencer: Our Daughter Shortly after the death of her Mom, she said to me “Dad, now that you aren’t caregiving for Mom all the time, you need a hobby. How about wine? After all, now that you can travel out of the house again, we’ll be going out to dinner now and again and I really don’t want you to continue to be the guy who always says ‘I don’t care what wine you get, I’ll just have a beer.’” Her advice influenced me to learn about wines and start our cellar. As she often says now “I’m so glad your hobby is wine, Dad. I love sharing it with you, but really wouldn’t enjoy it as much if you collected stamps!”
Honorable Influencer Mention goes to one of my roommates of old, Mike, who lives in Napa Valley. One day I noticed a photo of Mike, in some idyllic setting, bottling wine! I shot him a comment of ‘nice gig if you can get it’. He responded telling me he was bottling wine in Napa Valley, made by a friend who made ‘great wines’ and that he could hook me up! He did and thus began our love affair and focus on boutique, Napa Valley, reds!
Cheers to all the influencers in our lives! Who were yours?