Welcome to My Wine Blog!

    Hi all and welcome to my first wine blog post!  My name is Sarah Shelton and I am a senior double majoring in Marketing and French.  I am looking forward to using this blog to document my experience learning all about wine!  Hopefully, by the end of this course, I will have a deeper understanding of and appreciation for wine: its history, cultural significance, consumption, and even taste overall.

    Currently, I have a relatively limited knowledge surrounding wine.  My parents, who love and appreciate wine, attempted to instill an interest in me from a pretty young age.  They would allow me to taste different wine and cheese pairings, have a sip of wine at dinner, and even took me to a wine tasting in Paris at the age of 18.  Admittingly, though, at a young age, I didn't have much interest or even the palate for good wine.  I thought it was cool that my parents would allow me to try something that I wasn't supposed to have, per se, but I found wine to be "bitter" or "unpleasing."

    As I've gotten older, however, I've grown to appreciate wine a bit more.  Last semester, I studied abroad in Lugano, Switzerland, where I had the chance to try wine across Europe.  After tasting wine throughout Italy, Switzerland, and Portugal - paired with delicious food as well - I definitely decided that I did, indeed, enjoy wine. 

        Vinho Verde wine tasting boat ride in Lisbon, Portugal.  

    The wine was great and the views were amazing!  

    (I am pictured on the right in a black coat).

       My experience with wine abroad pushed me to sign up for this class in order to gain a greater appreciation for the commodity.  I have tried expanding my wine palette since returning to the States by visiting local wineries (Keswick Vineyards, Fifty-Third Winery and Vineyards, and Honah Lee Vineyard, just to name a few) and tasting different wine and food pairings.  Although, admittingly, I tend to buy cheap wines while at school (think broke-college-student wines like Barefoot, Cupcake Rosé, AVA Grace, etc), my parents have still encouraged good wine tasting at home.

    

    Although I've enjoyed tasting wine, I really don't know much about wine as a whole.  I can determine if a wine tastes "good" or "bad" to me, but that's about it.  My hope is that this course will allow me to learn more about wine flavors and notes, food pairings, and the cultural significance of wine as a whole.  

    Fondue and wine dinner in Zurich, Switzerland.  

(I'm pictured on the right in the black coat and white shirt).