Introduction

I will admit right out of the gate that I do not have a huge amount of experience with wine. When I was younger, I would see my parents drinking wine almost every night with dinner, and after being offered some and hating it, I wondered why they even bothered. Since starting at Virginia Tech, I have had far more exposure to beer and liquor than wine, but after recently having a few glasses of wine while visiting family, I have found myself craving wine more, and beer and liquor to a lesser degree.

Within the past several months, I have purchased a grand total of two bottles of wine, a bottle of California-grown pinot noir, and a bottle of Coppola Rosso & Bianco, which despite being fairly cheap, I have enjoyed quite a bit. I tend to drink with friends or family, but have also on occasion had a glass of wine with my dinner after a long day of studying.

Throughout the duration of this course, I hope to pick up a much more thorough understanding of the different grapes used to make wine, be able to distinguish what wines that I like from those that I'm not too fond of, and my ultimate goal is to come away from this course with enough enthusiasm for wine to incorporate it into my life.

My one apprehension for this course is that I have an extremely weak sense of smell (think not being able to distinguish a fart or foul B.O. from any other smell), and I fear that that will pose some challenges to my potential for appreciating all that wine has to offer. Hopefully though, that can be worked around!