A personal look at the unexpected wine a-ha moments that cultivated a lifelong passion for wine culture

I currently live in a wine producing country. Not only that, but I also live close to many wine producing regions[i]. But that wasn’t always the case. I spent most of my childhood and all my adolescence in Ecuador, a country that mostly produced wine for clerical purposes, and only recently has begun to grow its wine industry. I really only got into wine when I moved to Chile in the final years of the past millennia.

It started with wine courses I took while attending culinary schools. Of course, wine and food go hand in hand, so, organically, wine slowly grew on me the more I got involved with food. While these courses deepened my understanding, my true wine a-ha moments began much earlier than I realized at the time.

Yes, the origin story goes deeper than that. How did I get into wine? Man! That’s a question and a half! Let’s dig!

How The Seeds Were Planted in My Childhood

My mother’s side of my family come from the south of Bolivia, where wine is produced. Distant relatives were wine producers themselves, albeit mostly for family consumption and a little to sell to friends and neighbors. Is this love for wine in my genes? Unlikely. I never met them, and my grandparents moved out of the region when mom was still young.

But let me stick with that side of the family for a few moments longer. My grandfather was German and therefore loved beer. He used to let us—my brother and myself—sip a little from his glass when we were kids, just like he had done to my mom and uncles when they were young.

How about my father’s side of the family? Well, no objections there, either. See, my paternal grandfather was Argentinian, son of Spaniards. When he was a child, dad lived in Buenos Aires for a year or two. Back then and there, children were served wine diluted with soda water with their meal.

Alcohol was never taboo in my household, paving the way for the wine “a-ha” moments that were yet to come.

Italy And The A-Ha Moment That Stuck

I went to Europe when I was 19. It was a family trip moving around several countries in not too many days. It was a cramped tour, but we had a few days to explore at our own pace. I recall our lunch breaks between museums and churches. Always humble osterias, sometimes in the way from a one Tuscan town to the next.

Food, of course, was always excellent. Fresh pasta with homemade ragù or tasty veggies. But it’s the wine that I remember best. House wine in label-less bottles or traditional fiascos[ii] served in regular tumblers[iii] instead of wine glasses. I don’t remember having a bad glass of wine during that visit.

Now, I need to clear something out. At the time, I enjoyed food but had no interest in cooking. And I really liked the wine in Tuscany, but I wasn’t into wine back then. So, let me get into…

We Return to Our Regular Programming of Wine “A-Ha” Moments!

So, back to our Tuscan lunches and the wines their osterias offered. I don’t remember a bad wine in the lot. In fact, the whole reason I’m writing this article is because it’s this wine a-ha moment that sparked the casual and everyday approach to wine writing that this blog is all about!

Before I learned how academic and complicated wine can be, in Europe I saw that wine culture was a no-fuss, relaxed cultural experience. No brands and no fancy glasses, just tasty simple wine to go with your fantastic pasta! The Old World approaches wine differently.

Back then I wasn’t thinking about getting into food, much less wine. But the seed was planted: I’ve always remembered how good that house wine was.

My Academic Wine A-Ha Moment: Finally Understanding Wine

I went out to study Marketing and Business Administration. Call it homesickness, call it just sick-of-cafeteria-food-ness. The thing is that I started cooking while in college. And I got good at it! So, a year after graduating I decided to go to culinary school, where I would formally study wine.

I learned about the winemaking process and the technical intricacies of wine. I also got a chance to taste wines from all over the world, including Chianti Classico, though this time in regular Bordeaux bottles.

I also got to see the passion of my teachers talking about their favorite regions and wines. I particularly remember one of them showing us some pictures of him in Portugal playing the guitar while foot-treading grapes in a lagar[v] with a few others, walking in circles. Nobody was looking at the camera, but they were all grinning mid-step. Sure, my professor—and maybe the other treaders—were all guests. But despite the hard work, people were having fun. Good vibes turning into good wines. That, and learning the importance of food pairing, were my wine a-ha moments in school.

From Kitchen Heat to Wine A-Ha Moments

It would be inaccurate to say I forgot about wine when I graduated and started working in kitchens. But it would be fair to say that I didn’t think much about it the first couple of years. As my career advanced, however, I began getting more involved with all the operations of whatever restaurant I was employed at. And me, being a friendly fellow, quickly acquainted myself with the servers and sommeliers[vi]. Some of them, like my teachers before, were passionate about wine[vii].

I kept getting better jobs and more responsibilities, and eventually decided to open a restaurant. That’s where I got lucky. I hired a friend, an experienced server I had worked with before, who also happened to be an excellent sommelier.

Soon after, I brought in another friend to help with the commercial side of the business. He was a wine lover too, with a graduate degree in wine production and marketing. He also always had a half-case of wine in the trunk of his car, since he often consulted for wineries. He liked to say that sharing wine with others was a form of culture. I agree.

So, the three of us would often sit down after service to uncork a bottle (either one he brought or something from the restaurant) and talk about business, life, and wine. Their enthusiasm was contagious. At one point during those late-night conversations, I had another wine a-ha moment: I remembered I was already in love with wine.

A few years later I left the industry, but I didn’t leave behind my love for food and the passion for wine.

The Last Drop

I got to see wine from the layman’s perspective, uncorking with friends and sometimes enjoying a glass with lunch. I purchased a few bottles every now and then, which started to accumulate when we were… er… confined. That life-changing experience motivated me to care more for what I was already passionate about. Relevant to this blog: travel and wine. I started planning trips to wine growing regions[viii] and purchasing more wine to enjoy with friends. All that culminated in me buying a wine fridge to safely store my growing collection.

I’ve given you the abbreviated version, not my full curriculum vitae. I’ve omitted wine a-ha moments to keep this post concise, and to not sound repetitive. For instance, the movie Sideways released during my last year of culinary school. It turned me on to Pinot Noir and wine as a travel destination.

Around the same time Anthony Bourdain aired his newest show. In its inaugural episode, the host travels to a meat market in Paris and has breakfast with the workers. And by breakfast, I mean a charcuterie sandwich and wine. Yes, at 7 a.m. No, there was unlikely to be a wine list or a label in the bottle. Yet another example of how European culture is intertwined with wine. It’s truly a part of their everyday life. And I feel that describes the sentiment of this space perfectly!

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Footnotes

[i] Santiago is about an hour drive away from the Maipo and the Casablanca wine regions. Colchagua is only a couple of hours away. Even Mendoza, in Argentina, is only about a five hour drive from Santiago!

[ii] The fiasco bottle is rounded at the bottom, which is partially covered with a straw basket. A lot of winemakers bottled lower quality Chianti in fiascos, which gave it a bad rep. Today they are less common, as producers favor regular 750mL bottles for packaging reasons. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if fiascos make a comeback. They are already starting to creep into some wineries.

[iii] This style of tumblers was made famous by Duralex with their Le Picardie line. Check their site to see what I’m talking about.

[iv] I don’t really like to add brands here because I’m not sponsored and these are wines I’m not tasting. The bottles mentioned were popular in Latin America in the 80s and 90s, and are still around, even if they’re not popular.

[v] A large open (sometimes stone) fermentation vat used for pressing grapes in Portugal and Spain.

[vi] One of them made me realize that not all Chardonnay was oaked, when he introduced me to Chablis and blew my mind!

[vii] Here I need to stop for a second to mention that I also worked as a server in restaurants, where I got to participate in that passion and see it first-hand.

[viii] I got more interested in nearby regions, but I also went to California, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Different cultures, but similar passion for winemaking.

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Cover Image: Picking the right bottle can be a wine a-ha moment. Photo by Francesco Ungaro.