A Trip to Bordeaux

In the summer of 2007 we went backpacking through Europe for 6 weeks. It was an awesome experience to have as a couple! In our travels we went to Bordeaux, France. What a lovely city and place to spend a couple of days. In thinking about my journey with wine, I would say this is where it really all began for me. At this point David had finished just over a year of first year science classes with the intention of applying to get into the program in September 2008 (which he did). So it's time to embrace the idea of wine and try it for myself. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like it, it's just that I don't love it. I enjoy cooking with it and having a glass on occasion.

Here we are in Bordeaux with our super cheap bottles of wine


While in Bordeaux, we took a bus ride to visit the town of St. Emillion. This was a super cute little town famous for its wine and macaroons. Odd combo, I know. Anyways, not that David is working on his degree I have read about the town in several of his books, I never realized how significant it is as a part of the Bordeaux wine region.

One of my first experiences doing a wine tasting. There were huge underground wine cellars, very cool!

Earliest Memories

I never grew up in a house where wine or alcohol was ever present. I'm not sure why that was exactly, it was just the way it was. My earliest and really only memory of wine is at my Oma and Opa's house. Everyone in my extended family knows that my Opa has a glass of wine before bed. He claims it's for his health.

I remember once when I was staying over at my Oma and Opa's for the night with my cousin Tim, we decided to see what this 'wine' was all about anyways. We were sleeping in the basement, which is near the cellar where the wine is kept. So once it seemed pretty quiet upstairs we headed into the cellar to have a sip of Opas wine. Perhaps, that's why I don't love wine today. My earliest memory of wine was actually pretty terrible.

The beginning of the Journey

So here I am living in Ontario as my husband, David, is going to school to become a professional wine maker. He's actually in the oenology/ viticulture co op program at Brock, but nobody knows what that means, so we'll say that he's learning how to make wine and grow grapes.

I've never really loved wine; I've never really loved alcohol actually. I know that may sound a little strange. It seems that almost everyone loves some kind of alcohol. Therefore in order to support my husband, who I love dearly, and not seem like the complete idiot that I am when it comes to wine I have decided to go on a quest. My goals are to learn to love and appreciate wine. Even if I never LOVE the way it tastes, I hope that I will at least gain a greater understanding of what goes into a good bottle. Knowing that I will most likely be living in a 'wine world' from now on I think that it is due time for me to start figuring the whole wine thing out.

I figure that with a husband telling me countless facts and information about grapes and wine, not to mention wine books and magazines lying all over our house, surely it can't be that hard for me to pick up a few things.

Thinking about blogging, I think it would be neat to look back a year, or two or more down the road and see what I've learned and how I've grown in the world of wine. Only time will tell.