The Virgin

I would be lying if I said I know anything about wine. Well, I do know a few things:

1. Wine comes from grapes.
2. $5 Barefoot Moscato is all I like/can afford.
3. Lots of people really like wine.

Yep. Really. That's sadly pretty much what I know. Hence my taking Prof. John Boyer's Geography of Wine class. Obviously, I'm hoping to get a lot out of this semester, but I'll get to that in a few minutes.

First, let's look at my previous experience with wine. It all started back when...well, never actually. I will freely admit that wine and I don't really have a history. [After turning 21] I have always been partial to beer, mostly, so I never really had an interest in trying most other alcoholic drinks, wine included. Not to mention the few times I tried wine, I never liked it. The first time I tried wine and did like it was just this past fall at a football tailgate, where I was offered Moscato. I declined immediately, since it was wine and as a rule I didn't like wine, but my host insisted, promising me it was more like juice than anything else. And sure enough, it was basically juice - very sweet and light, nothing like wines I had tried. So began my liking of very cheap, very sweet Moscato. Since then, that's about as deep as I've delved into the world of wine, which is basically analogous to only sticking my toes into a very, very deep ocean.

Clearly, I desperately need this class! Of course, I expect to learn a lot this spring. I think the biggest thing I'm hoping to gain is a basic knowledge of the "classification" of wines, you might call it. As we learned on Day 1, Pinot Grigio is a grape, while Champagne is a region, and so on. The names we call wines are not just names -  there's a meaning and story behind each title, be that the grape, style, or region. There's a ton of variety, and I'd love to be able to look at a wine label and actually read it and understand it. Secondly, as with many of my classmates, I'm sure, I want to be able to taste wine and understand the different layers of flavor that are apparently there (with my inexperience, pretty much all I taste is wine, so I'm going off faith that "hints of oak and peach" exist). And finally, I guess I just want to come away with a new knowledge and appreciation of this drink that has been a staple in the human diet for so many centuries. I have zero doubt that I will come away with anything less - Prof. Boyer knows his alcohol! (and history and geography and economics and a lot of other smart and useful things).

Oh, so bonus story relating to the class: As a prospective student, I had a friend, who was a current Hokie at the time, show me around campus. One of our stops was looking into McBryde 100, where Prof. Boyer was teaching Geography of Wine. Who would have thought that 4 years later, now a full-fledged Hokie myself, I would be sitting in the same room taking the same class I saw as a curious high-school senior? Sometimes the world works in strange and wonderful ways :)

So, if you're interested in witnessing a wine virgin become a wine expert, stick around this semester to see wine tastings, wine dinners, vineyard visits, and all kinds of wine-related shenanigans!