The 7 wine phases that everyone goes through
If you ‘wine lover’ if you look it up in the dictionary, there is a pretty good chance you'll see a happy photo of me behind it. Together with thousands of others, because I believe that loving wine is the favorite hobby of many a man and woman. Unfortunately, you won't see my happy photo behind ‘wine expert’, because I can't really call myself an expert. I find wine very tasty and also quite interesting, but drinking it takes too much time to actually learn about it. A bit of a shame, I know, but I always like to be advised in restaurants about which wine goes well with the dishes, and I do have my favorites by now. And I think that's quite something; I've come a long way. We all have. Because when we were still mini-wine drinkers, we couldn't taste the difference between a Viognier and a Chenin Blanc. In fact, we probably pronounced it as a viejognier and a sjeenin blank. Charming. Because yes, you also make a wine journey in your life that you can divide into phases. Read and recognize.
The Canei and other sweet white wine junk phase
Aiii. Really, when I think back to this, I have to suppress the gag reflex. How did we drink this en masse back then? Even when I see the Canei standing in the supermarket I get chills again. When I was anything but a wine connoisseur, you could drink at sixteen instead of eighteen, and so it happened that around my fifteenth I had my first glass of wine. Super mature. No, okay, it wasn't even a glass: just drinking straight from the bottle with your girlfriends. A bottle of Canei (and of course a bottle of Passion or piña colada) and feeling like a boss because you were drinking wine (and not Breezers or Smirnoff Ice). Yuck.
The house wine phase
Once you've closed the times of drinking straight from the bottle, it's time for the next phase. The phase where you still feel very grown up, and this time because you're going out to dinner with your friends. When I was in high school, I thought that was really a big deal (even though I didn't go further than the local Loetje). And yes, going out to dinner without a glass of wine is of course not possible (especially not when you feel so grown up), but because all those names and descriptions meant absolutely nothing to you, you automatically went straight for the house wine (at Loetje, that's been the Torres for twenty years). Because yes, you can't taste the difference in flavor, but you definitely notice that difference in price.
You learn the difference between Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc
Just a prelude: learning the difference between types does not necessarily mean you can taste the difference blindfolded. In fact, during a test I did recently with a blindfold and different wines, certainly 90% of the people failed. But hey, you're making progress: you can now name two different types of white wines. Hatsee. White wines yes, because red wine is still foreign to you.
The rise of red wine
Because that red wine actually always comes later. Only when you've left the Canei behind, you taste the difference between dry and sweet white wine (and never order the latter in restaurants again, especially not with ice) and can even name a few types, then comes the introduction to red wine. For me personally, this was love at first sight; I embraced red wine and never let go. No cautious introduction, because especially for the beginner, I think there isn't much difference in red wines.
You start to develop preferences
Ah, the beginning of an opinion. No longer automatically choosing the house wine, no, even expressing your preference. This was the phase where I consistently said I didn't want Chardonnay but a Sauvignon Blanc (and even had the pronunciations down), but also a Viognier wasn't strange to me and I got excited about a Grüner Veltliner. You might also convince yourself in this phase that you've become a connoisseur, but don't kid yourself: you're not.
You drink different wines during one dinner
That can of course happen in two ways: taking a wine arrangement (nice and easy) or figuring out which glass to take for each dish yourself. The latter is of course a lot harder, so be careful with the company you're with, you don't want to be exposed as a con artist as a connoisseur. I believe I currently find myself in this phase. And then on the easy side: I let myself be advised or let others make the choice. This way, you can criticize them if they haven't done it right (but don't overplay your hand) and still have a varying wine schedule. Absolutely great.
The wine connoisseur
You've made it. You're a real wine connoisseur. No, okay, I'm lying, the real wine connoisseurs are in phase 8, which for many will never be reached. Because really understanding wine, tasting differences, knowing what goes with what, that's not for everyone. But that's okay. You can also call yourself a wine connoisseur when you have a lot of wine experience.
