I was poring over The Naked Vine Index while working on a review of a South African
wine. I swore that I’d written about this particular wine – Mulderbosch Chenin
Blanc – in the recent past. I went back to the archives to see if my new notes
paralleled my previous review. There were some parallels with the previous
review...that I’d written almost six
years before.
I sometimes lose track of how long I’ve been at this. I first clicked
“Publish” on The Naked Vine on August 1, 2006 and I first appeared in print in
the Dayton City Paper on January 3, 2007. A lot of bottles have gone into the recycling
bin since then. When I look at some of those early columns and reviews, it’s
blatantly obvious that my tastes, my palate, and my outlook on wine in general
have changed a lot over the years.
Everything evolves in stages -- whether biological
organisms, psychological states, or a wine taster’s palate. One doesn’t leap
from Manichewitz to Chateau Petrus in a day. When we’re going through an
educational experience --and my last decade of wine tasting has most certainly been
that – we gain a little knowledge through experience, try to figure out What It
All Means, and then apply it to the next situation. Through fits and starts, we
gradually get a clearer picture.
Tucked away among dusty remembrances of my University of
Arizona grad school seminars in higher education two decades ago is an identity
development theory by a school psychologist named Arthur Chickering. His “seven
vectors” of the psychological growth of college students are commonly cited in the
higher education literature. Working on my doctoral qualifying exams last November (which I passed, by the way!) I revisited Chickering’s work.
Since this theoretical stuff has been on my mind so much
recently, I thought it might be fun to apply the vectors to the “higher
education” of learning about wine. Sure, developmental psychology might seem an
odd framework to think about wine appreciation – but we taste as much with our
brains as we do our tongues and noses. And while I don’t claim to be fully
developed as a wine connoisseur, I think this process holds up pretty well.
Here’s my wine-related application of Chickering’s seven vectors:
#1 -- Developing
Competence: You’re just getting started. You’ve had some wines you liked.
Maybe you’ve gone to a wine tasting or six and even figured out that you prefer
reds to whites, but you really don’t know merlot from your elbow. You need the
basics here. The fundamentals. If you’re in this stage – a good place to start
is with The Big Six, my term for the
six grapes everyone should know: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Riesling on
the white side; Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah on the red. Also,
peek back through the archives to my old Wine School articles to get an idea.
#2 -- Managing
Emotions – This stage refers to the challenge of handling one’s feelings
and acting appropriately – whether to positive or negative stimuli. As a wine
student, you’re going to find yourself overwhelmed once you start trying new
types of wines. You’ll find one you like and you’ll feel the urge to buy two
cases. I was firmly in this phase on our first trip to Sonoma in 2005, as you
could see from our credit card receipts. While you undoubtedly will burn out on
a type of wine you like in this stage, it’ll be fun getting there. If you’re
ready to branch out, go with flavorful wines: Zinfandel, Gewurztraminer, and maybe
a rosé or two.
#3 -- Moving through
Autonomy toward Interdependence – Oh, this is the fun phase…learning how
everything is connected and how to state preferences for what you want. By this
point, you have a basic idea of what flavors you enjoy. Now you get to apply the
Naked Vine First Law of Wine Pairings – people make wine to go with the food
they like. As you start to understand the lovely interdependence between food
and wine, you start to pick certain wines for certain meals (or pick certain
meals for certain wines!) and you start to gain a greater appreciation for why
certain wines are made certain ways. If you’ve made it this far, now’s the time
to start playing with Italian and French wines, especially Chianti, Barbera,
Cotes-du-Rhone and Bordeaux.
#4 -- Developing
Mature Interpersonal Relationships – One of the terms that comes up in this
stage is “cross-cultural tolerance” – being able to negotiate relationships
with individuals that you may not have been comfortable around previously. With
wine, this is the time when you get over the biases that you developed in the
managing emotions stage. You get a glass of that Muscadet next to some
peel-and-eat shrimp or some oysters on the half shell and go, “Oh…*now* I get
it.” Context plays such a strong role in understanding wine. So, try that
Muscadet here while at a raw bar – or crack open (and decant! decant! decant!)
some barnyard-laden French wines – earthy selections from Burgundy and
Chateauneauf-de-Pape (preferably with some rich French foods and cheeses) to
gather some knowledge.
#5 -- Establishing
Identity – This phase is about becoming comfortable with one’s self and
gaining self-esteem. By this point in the process, you’ve tried scads and scads
of wine. You’ve got a good idea of what’s what. You know what you like and what
you don’t. This is the point when people start handing you restaurant wine
lists because they figure you know what you’re talking about. At this point,
you’re ready to hone in on a grape or region and really explore. For me, this
was about the time when I started to love pinot noir, which can be a
challenging grape. I know that my favorites come from Burgundy and from Oregon.
You’ll find your favorites, too.
#6 & #7 -- Developing
Purpose & Developing Integrity – I take these two stages together,
because this is the developmental point where you start setting goals, deciding
on your core values, and living them. In the wine development process, this is
when you make the important live decisions like whether to build a wine cellar,
how much you wine you have around the house, how special an occasion has to be
to crack that particular bottle you’ve been saving, and so on. This is the most
dangerous stage for your wallet, as you might find yourself tracking down 80
year old dessert wines as I once did. Wine is now as much a part of your life
as anything else you have around the house. You are now fully integrated in the
oenological sense. Congratulations. This process never ends, but the journey is
most of the fun. Thanks for hanging in there with my journey over the last
seven-plus years, and let’s raise a glass to more good times ahead.
THAT GORGEOUS BORDEAUX WINE;TAKES THE BITE OUT OF MOST CIGARS;SHARE A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE LAST SUPPER AT LITTLE RIVER INLET,SC;THE ATMOSPHERE IS SUPERB,THE BARTENDER IS NICE,AND THE TEMPERATURE IS JUST-RIGHT;HAVE A BLESSED NEW YEAR;THANX.
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