Intro

To be honest, I really don’t really know much about wine other than it I know that is made by pressing and fermenting of grapes. However, it appears I have wine making in my blood and that my family history could read like an episode of Moonshiners.  On my Mother’s side, my linage is comprised of immigrant Italians who made a very strong homemade wine called grappa.  Apparently, grappa bowls are used to consume and share wine. The brim of the bowl is lined with sugar, lit on fire to seal the bowl and then passed around during special occasions.  The practice of drunken individuals lighting a flammable bowl sounds rather dangerous to me! My Father has shared his folklore stories of my West Virginia relatives eluding the authorities by making homemade fruit and berry wine in the mountain caverns.   

While my genealogy would seemingly seem lead me to be a serious wine maker or drinker, my knowledge and experience with wine is extremely limited.   I have literally never consumed an entire glass of wine. In fact, my familiarity and knowledge of wine has been limited to the few sips of wine and champagne I have indulged in at Christmas or weddings.

However, I love to travel, meet new people and experience other cultures.  I have studied abroad throughout Europe and Japan and have been told by many that the act of drinking wine is a form of travel in itself.  I am interested in learning how with proper training I can appreciate and “taste” the culture and geography of the places I visit. 

  

What I hope to learn in this course is how I can make my future travels even more exciting and meaningful through wine. This includes my upcoming study abroad trip in July to Japan with VT, where I hope to sample Saki.  I hope to learn how discern between different wines, identify their regions and have a more meaningful cultural experience when I travel. I also hope that by enjoying a glass a wine when I return home from my travels, it will transport me back in time to the people and places I have enjoyed most. 


Grappa Bowl