WINE NOTES:

sip your way around the world

The other night I enjoyed a dense, savoury red wine with a beautiful label from a tiny vineyard nestled on the side of an active volcano in Sicily. As I sipped it, I wondered if the winemaker on that small island ever imagined that his wine would find its way to someone far away on another small island on the other side of the world (coincidentally enough, living right by another active volcano).

Wine is one of the few products transparently connected to its place of origin, and every wine tells a story of its place in the world, via its region, soil, climate and the people who coax it from vine to bottle. This link from producer to consumer can get overlooked with a bottle plonked in the supermarket trolley, or a glass drunk without thought after a busy day and, when it does, the wine drinker misses the opportunity to truly appreciate the most wondrous, fascinating aspect of wine: it’s not just something that tastes delicious, it’s also a window to other worlds via geography, culture and history. Recently, I’ve enjoyed wines from a clever young woman starting her own label, an organic produce businessman embarking on a vineyard labour of love as a tribute to his late wife, a white wine made from a grape I’d never heard of, a sparkling wine made in an ancient, nearly forgotten method of production now making a comeback thanks to the hipster brigade, and another wine clearly a product of a marketing department’s imagination, but made by genuinely good people passionate about their vineyards and wines.

How do you find this information and deepen your enjoyment of wine? Read labels, visit websites (or better yet, wineries), buy from independent retailers who know and care about these aspects of wine. There’s a rich, diverse landscape to explore, and it’s available in every glass you drink.