I wouldn't say that I have a large quantity of experience when it comes to wine, but I'm not a rookie when it comes to drinking and enjoying wine. My mother normally drinks sauvignon blanc's and chardonnays, and that's been the case for as long as I can remember. My dad doesn't really spend any time drinking wine unless it is with me, which is normally a nice red or something that he could use for cooking and creating a sauce. I recently spent a lot of time in Ohio with my Aunt and Uncle, and they are avid wine drinkers and really just drink various reds with any type of food (even fish/chicken which I thought was weird). So I've spent some time drinking wine, but I wouldn't say I really know a whole lot.
Whenever I'm buying wine for myself, I normally just buy a cabernet sauvignon or a cheap red. Sometimes if I'm feeling fancy, I'll buy a chardonnay and walk into a party with it and think I'm super smart because it won't stain a carpet floor if I spill - Woo, go me. So I'd say that I understand what I like, but I only buy what I've had before, not any new wines that I might like. That might be a little unfortunate, but I'd say that this would be attributed to the fact that buying wine requires a certain comfort level with what you're purchasing because it's a $10 bottle a lot of the time.
From this course, I'm really hoping to gain more confidence with buying wine that I haven't tried before, and of course being able to buy wine at a restaurant. Doing the sniff and swirl in public would definitely be something that I would like to do in the future. Also just learning the nuances to drinking and buying wine is something that I would really like to do. I just find all of the different containers and glasses for drinking wine pretty fascinating, and I think that the history behind wine consumption is quite interesting. There's just a lot of different things going on with wine that allow for everyone to have their own special way to enjoy wine.
