I'm feeling slightly smug and pleased with myself this week (i know, never a good thing, you're bound to get tripped up somewhere along the line, but oh well, indulge me!). It's the kind of feeling you get when you take up something that you've been promising yourself you will do for ages, never get around to it, but then suddenly something comes over you and you get off your bottom and do something about it. I have enrolled on, and started a wine appreciation course at Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies.
First class and the signs are good. I am a complete novice with wine. I have always thought myself one of the unfortunates who couldn't taste or appreciate wine properly. I always drink it and nothing bursts upon me. I expect to be smelling and tasting huge, wild concoctions of things but then nothing...it completely underwhelms me. It's always been a means to a bad or naughty end...But then from the off in this class i could feel myself improving. It made me think and appreciate what i was tasting and it was good! This week was the introduction week. We tasted 2 whites (a Muscadet and a Sauvignon Blanc) and 2 reds (a Beaujolais and a Shiraz), and then a final gorgeous guessing game - it was a Ch Filhot Sauternes 1997, Bordeaux. People's opinions were mixed but i loved it.
So, i am excited and motivated to learn more on this course. I hope to come out of it full of knowledge and appreciation for these wines. I am eager to learn more. Come to that, can anybody recommend some good introductory books on wine, or some authors to try?
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