“Wine is bottled poetry.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

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I am no wine expert. I don’t know a lot of the correct language to use when writing about wine. I just enjoy the journey of sampling varieties of wines from around the world like a magical mystery tour.

In place of sommelier vocabulary, I am going to write brashly and humbly about wines I have tried in recent years that have stayed with me for some reason, whether through taste, setting, company or experience.

I remember the first time I tasted red wine, when a bottle was placed on the table at my Year 11 prom and had one sip and declared it tasted like vinegar and wondered, how could anybody possibly like this?

Around my 21st birthday, a friend and I went to London and she bought me a glass of wine from the hotel bar. I felt grateful but guilty and couldn’t tell her I didn’t like it, but drank it anyway. She bought a few more, and I thought it wasn’t too bad by the end of the night.

I’ve loved to travel since I was 18 and I believe that the best way to sample a culture is through food and drink (not just alcoholic drinks; Moroccan mint tea, Italian espresso, freshly squeezed Seville orange juice and more are also delightful).

For me, tasting wine is a form of travelling. Opening a bottle from Chile from 2019, or a 2017 Chianti, or a 2020 Bulgarian, for example, is both a geographical travel and a time travel.

Here, I’d like to share some of these travels from wines that have stood out to me over the years. Reasons for my choices below vary from being because I loved the taste, to the memorable event I tried it, the beauty of the location, the life stage I was in, or a particular memory I have attached to the sensory experience.

Continue reading “Travelling via Wine: Some Memorable Wines from over the Years” →