A beauty about journeys into the world of a wine: the never-ending expansion of experience.
Sooner or later, there comes a bottle that takes you by slight surprise with something you weren’t expecting. Of course, you might never know what to really expect, thus letting go of any expectations. But regardless, there comes those batches that catch you slightly off-guard.
Today’s freshly-opened bottle: a “Smooth Red” from Open Winery.
At around $12-13/bottle (CAD), the first graze on the tongue was pleasant. Smooth, lush, nice body. And then the curveball...
I don’t know my wine terminology, so can’t say for sure whether it is a “tartness” or what - though it might be the effect of the tannins from the skin. Though after that initial smoothness, the contrast comes in, almost a bit dry... kinda fascinating.
I've been enjoying these excursions into my home province's wines for just this reason: the unexpected stimulations.
Of course, taste is always the entry-point.
Yet, what these entry points lead to, has turned out to be quite interesting.
Granted, no amount of words can ever convey the taste - not even the typical narratives connosseiurs may use to attempt describing a wine's flavors with references of fruits and qualities and such. Sure, they might provide a faint idea. But none of those words grant the same access point to the states through which those chemical keys striking the tastebuds are reached.
And no doubt, every individual's experience of a given wine would be completely different.
To a complete newbie, the subtleties would most likely be indistinguishable. It takes a breadth of contrasting experiences to refine one's senses to the distinctions between different wines - building a repetoire of exposure to a variety of detectable qualities, from which to gauge what makes one particular batch unique.
But as that palate opens up to be able to discern those subtleties separating the degrees within the wider spectrum... oooh, baby.
And as usual with these "reviews," this is where the microcosmic-macrocosmic expansion begins...
Yeah, we might have started with wine. But would the same perspective not apply to life itself...?
Sensory input... an access point.
Taste. Sound. Sight. Touch. Smell. (How many other vibrational inputs on different frequency spectrums, which we might still perceive - though not yet quite have the capacity to articulate the experience of as they are translated).
The wider the range we are exposed to, the richer our wealth of experience.
And the richer the wealth of experience, the more capable we become of diving deeper into the depths of any particular angle - better attuned to the contrast deepening understanding of the distinctions more clearly defining the place and space of each frequency/angle/quality.
The small differences in the tastes of a wine, completely unique gateways to sensory experiences providing more than just a buzz and pleasingness to the tongue. The differences in the varieties of life's numerous other offerings...
Travel. Exposure to different places, new cultures, contrasting environments - providing an expanding backdrop of experience from which to compare the new, and appreciate different aspects of the old we couldn't before without the contrast.
Relationships. Meeting new people, engaging with colorful personalities, seeing different approaches to life as they're taken by others with varying viewpoints.
Ideas and information. Exploring unknown dimensions of reality, making discoveries that broaden our comprehension of nature and the human-constructed realms in which we work and play.
Food. Drugs. Music. Stories.
All access points to new worlds.
All vibrational keys to states and experiences. The more unlocked, the more there is to explore, engage in, and appreciate.
All that. In a single sip.
Who'd have thunk.
Or, maybe that's just stating the obvious, to those who've had decades of experience ahead of myself.
No wonder why so many take wine so seriously as one of the most refined pleasantries life has to offer. The countless vineyards, built on passion. The countless bottles, lining cellars of connosseuirs across the globe like trophies, representing the victory of centuries of tradition, the celebration to commence upon that first whiff and taste of a freshly opened bottle.
Yep.
The worlds of wonder awaiting in a single glass...
And if you didn't yet guess, the Open Smooth Red may very be worth the purchase if you can get your hands on it.