Glassunion and his journey in wine, humility and folks named Phillips.

Up until recently in my life, I could take or leave wine without more than a fleeting thought.

However, recently I have been intrigued by it. After spending some time learning about the process, the history and care that goes into it. I must say that I have a new found appreciation for it. I always thought of it as a game for the rich, that is something collected by and savored by a bunch of crusty old rich folk. I will and now admit that I was wrong.

Wine has an extensive and diverse history, so setting crusty old rich folk aside, wine has been around for about eight thousand years. Even the word "wine" is basically universal across most of European, North-West Asian, and African languages. In the Kartevelian (Mediterranean region north of Turkey) languages it is "ღვინო (ḡvino)", Indo-European/Russian вино (vino), Semitic (*wayn), and in English from the Proto-Germanic (winam), an early borrowing from the Latin (vinum). I have not tried this theory, however I feel in any of these regions, one could point to their mouth and say "WINE", and whether the other person speaks Russian, Slovakian, Hebrew, Arabic, or any of the Germanic languages they would be understood. Recently it is believed that in ancient China wine has been around since 7000 BC.

Throughout history, wine has been savored; or more precisely been a staple or necessity of just about every modern culture since the dawn of civilization. In my opinion I feel that enough time and history of it present in our species that we may have evolved it into our biology. Ancient cultures used it to purify water and only would drink water that had been infused with wine to kill bacteria. Heck, even the occasional historian believed that the cultivation of grapes led us from barbarism. "The people of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine." -Thucydides

Anyhoo... back on to French wine. I'm going to speak in the third person, mainly because it makes me sound a tad insane, and I like that. Glassunion was not much into wine until quite recently. He had never been impressed, or in fact had any of it strike any emotion in him whatsoever. Glassunion has been familiar with the workings of a kitchen since he was 10. His father was a Chef, and his grandfather a food chemist. There are meals that he has had that can take him instantly back to a young age, feeling a comfort in the food that reminds him of growing up. Feelings that remind him of the tender care of his mother or father putting their heart into a meal that they would all savor and enjoy as a family. A young Glassunion sitting at the table with a roast of any sort, his legs swinging under the chair as they were too short to reach the ground, having the slow roasted carrots just melting apart in his mouth... Yum.

But there was one thing always absent at his table growing up. That was wine. His folks were never really into wine. Sure they would cook with it, but you just buy any old wine for that. But growing up, it was never on on the table. Perhaps it has to do with his parent's cultures... Irish and African. He is unsure, but that is the way it was.

Every single day Glassunion drives by a little tiny wine shop on his way home. Every so often he would stop in and pick up a 6 pack of beer or a bottle of vodka, whiskey or whatever. However, he rarely picked up wine, unless he wanted to cook with it. One day, out in front of the store there was a chalk sign that read "Wine tasting today" as he drove by. He thought, "Why not?" and stopped in. They were sampling the same exact grape from all regions and countries that you could imagine. The grape was the Pinot Nior (black pine) which is a rather difficult little dude to cultivate but can produce some of the finest wines in the world. Glassunion was not impressed. "We'll see" he thought.

They had one hell of a sampling setup, and just about every region that can grow the grape was represented. They were arranged by country: Australia, Austria, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Moldova, New Zealand, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. Out of all of these samples, there was one that Glassunion kept returning to: France. There was something about it, something that reminded him of something that he could not put his finger on. Something that pleased him, in a subtle yet almost familiar way. To this day, he does not know what it is, or what it reminds him of. All he knows is; that day something in him woke up. He found something that sparked an interest to want to know everything about it. Burgundy... He needs to know everything about it.

From that tasting, Glassunion was so impressed, he forgot about the beer that he was there to buy. He went home with a bottle of wine from the Burgundy region. He was exited, and could not wait to impress his wife (who dislikes wine) with this new flavor. So impressed, he made a dinner around the wine. A bloody red steak, rich roasted potatoes and asparagus to accompany this new addition.

Glassunion's wife, as I mentioned before has a dislike of wine. Cannot stand it in fact. She was quite skeptical when he set the table, and poured two glasses of wine to accompany the dinner. Glassunion's heart lept when after his wife's first sip she exclaimed "Oh my God this is good wine!" However, he was a bit shaken when she asked "What is this?", as he did not know. The label was in French, and the extent of Glassunion's French is reading a menu, simple salutations, push and pull (this helps with doors) and asking the other party if they speak English... too parl onglay? Don't laugh, that's how he remembers it and it works. But one glance at the label on a bottle of French wine is like asking him to mediate a meeting of Klingons and Romulans. You ever see a dog cock their head at a stereo speaker? That was Glassunion looking at a label of French wine.

Here is where the humility came in. Glassunion knows that you can find anything on the internet. He was sure there are a million websites telling you how to read a label of French wine. Instead, he thought he would return to that little wine shop and humble himself, admit his ignorance and ask about how to read, and learn about this wine. It was the best thing he could have done.

The folks in this little wine shop are walking encyclopedias of wine, beer and spirits. Every Thursday for the past month Glassunion has been going back to this shop and spending at least an hour learning something new. He is familiar now with how wine is classified, organized and defined from France. He is familiar with how to properly examine wine, by using his senses of sight, smell, touch (mouth feel) and taste. All of this education has come free of charge. If you think about it, it makes good business sense to have an educated customer.

Glassunion could tell you today how to read a label of French wine, or how to taste it, or maybe even how to pick out a good one for a particular meal. However, he would rather you just open yourself up for a new experience and travel to your local mom and pop to learn for yourself. It will be a far more rewarding and enriching experience. The beauty of a tasting is that the biology of our brains can more easily remember something if it is associated with a smell and taste. If you have an experience that can be associated with a taste or smell, you are far more likely to remember the details surrounding it.

So to Richard Phillips owner of the wine shop, thanks for opening my eyes to a new experience. Richard is the third Phillips in my life that has helped me along. The other two were Dr. Joseph Phillips who was the only person who ever was able to get my mind wrapped around advanced mathematics, and then there is Henry Phillips, without you, we would all be using a flathead screwdriver.

So to finish, I would say, do not fear wine, or think of it as a treat for the wealthy. It isn't. Humanity from rich to poor have been consuming it since the dawn of civilization. Personally, I feel that if you don't like wine, you just havn't found one that works for you. The greatest lesson I have learned from spedning time at the wine shop, is this simple theory. Price has nothing to do with whether the wine is good or not. If you like it, it's good.