dad300
Posts: 850
Joined: 1/5/2020
From: South Paris, Maine
Status: offline
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My wine story goes like this.
i had teetotalling parents who never drank that I am aware of..
I got to college and immediately went off the deep end.. Drank way too much, way too often.. and often to my detriment..
but I remember a particular glass of wine i had at a restaurant while i was doing summer work for the university.. late 80's probably 87.. no idea of the actual wine other than it was s 79 vintage and i had never tasted anything like it, big bold warm and absolutely amazing..
However that was it, and shortly after i decided that i couldn't handle/ wasn't mature enough to drink any alcohol and was abstinent until my early 40's
what changed? well two jobs, kids , lack of sleep and a decidedly adverse reaction to sleep aids. I spoke with my doctor and he suggested a small glass of wine or a shot of liquor to take the edge off and give me the opportunity to try and sleep. so i had the discussion with my wife an we decided to give it a try.. and it worked. i could sleep.
two dollar abottle two vines, a jug of olive garden paisano.. and that is what i drank.. then i got bored with those wines and started trying stuff a little above that level.. ill never forget the first time i brought home a $10 bottle of wine .. I thought my wife was going to shoot me spending that much money.. my cellar will attest to the fact that i got over that hurdle..
and we found out later that she has expensive tastes as well. no cheap Riesling for her.
but the real impetus and drive to drink good wine and collect began in the fall of 2015 when we moved from Maine to East Tn and I was hired at Kroger. in 2016 East Tn was going to allow wine to be sold in Grocery stores and Kroger was going to do it up big and well. Hired 20 of us to be Wine stewards and Paid a Master of Wine to come teach us all about wine and get us ready for selling in the grocery stores. What an introduction, to good wine. additionally many of the national sales people came in that first year and we had classes and meetings of one sort or another almost once a week.
Many of us were then hooked I was definitely obsessed.. It scratched an itch for learning that had been back seat for many years.. and allowed me to teach and educate, another itch that hadn't been scratched for a long time. joined ct at this time but never really used it. usually only kept a few bottles on hand at a time
So formed a tasting group that eventually devolved into a drinking group. but i learned a lot and had a ton of fun. during the year and a half that i was at Kroger in the wine Department top bottles were 2012 cask 23, 2012 bv tapestry, Penfolds st Henri, and a crap ton of the top of the line ST Michelle stuff. seems like we tasted that every week..
finally in 2018 I joined a distributor and the ability to buy and the ability to purchase better wine took off. fought for a few years to get them to sponsor/ pay for my CSW testing and the finally did and I passed, . along with a lot of others in my group.. travelled to Washington state and Napa, and generally got sucked into buying as much wine as i could afford. Riesling became an obsession for a bit.. and still holds a special place,, Worked with some great people and got mentored by some of the best. shout out to Charlie Rollins of Knoxville and Eric Crane of the ATL. started an industry tasting group that crossed distributor lines. fell in love with Red mountain and old school Napa. as of summer 2023 a I'm back in Maine as a buyer for a small independent upscale specialty food/deli. and hoping to get my own shop up and running by the end of the summer.
currently drink about anything but tend to Red blends and high acid whites.
and thats my story..
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Red Mountain stole my wine stained heart
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8 years on Ct? - 
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