Quick musings on wine blogs and wine books...

As you all know, I've packed in the day job and decided to pursue wine as a full time career -- doing consulting and pursuing my true love, wine education.

Today, I've been doing a lot of research and background reading, as I try to get my materials together on the types of tastings I'll do with people, and I figured something out.

Most wine writing falls into 2 camps -- it's either high level for dorks, or it's all about demystifying wine and dumbing it down. Many people who write on wine claim that they are not wine snobs and that they make wine simple. But you know what? I think they make it too simple.

Here's the deal: don't we all drink wine, in part, because there's a mystique about it? You may love the taste (I know I do), but don't you also love the fact that it's hard to figure out and that you don't know that much about it, even if you think you know a lot? Let's face it -- everyone in the wine industry could do a better job of organizing wine aisles, writing better descriptors on the bottle, and making it easier to find stuff, but don't we normal people appreciate the selection and the fact that you actually need to take your time to evaluate what you want? Isn't the nuance and the adventure of choice in wine enjoyable?

Personally, I think it's ok that wine is mysterious and that it's hard to figure out. If it wasn't, it would be like shopping for or drinking milk.

Is there a need to be a snot-nose jerk about it? No, but that goes for anything in your life. If people could just be normal about wine and treat it like the complex yet interesting, cool, many-splendor'd beverage it is, I think we'd all be better off.