Finding Wine Tastings while Traveling is awesome!
Finding a wine tasting while traveling is as fun to me as finding one of the “special” bottles wine on my personal list. And fun might not be a strong enough word, I love finding wine tastings! You would think tasting and finding new wines would be the best part. It’s not, it’s the second best part. Getting to meet new wine people is the best part. That sounds simple enough, but if you are reading this, chances are you are a wine lover, you might even be a full out wine person. Meeting other wine people is a great time!
The second best part is the chance to taste and find new wines. So why is it second to people. Well, if you are after wine first, or only wine, then that’s fine. You might also find yourself more often than not drinking that wine you found alone. I enjoy fun people with good wine, in that order. Don’t get me wrong, I love good wine, great wine is even better! And great wine can make some occasions much more enjoyable. Also, as we all know, finding great wines, well, it isn’t hard, but it isn’t cheap. What is hard is finding good wines (wines that YOU like) that are relatively inexpensive. And it is a life long quest to [attempt to] try all of wines in the world. And remember one of the rules of wine tasting; Taste Everything!
So, it was to my great enjoyment that my wife noticed that a wine shop down the row from one of my favorite sandwich shops of all time was having a wine tasting. That wine shop, Puck’s Market, was full of fun wine people! Amee, the owner, along with the staff, were enthusiastic about wine and a pleasure to talk to. And, of course, talking with the other tasters was great.
Yet, now that I am again back in our Gulf Coast Wine region, writing this, I can reflect on larger things. The biggest is just how unique and special our local wine culture is down here. You can find wine tastings and events all over the world, but most of them are in big to very big cities. Not only do we have as many wine events as all of the big cities within a 6ish hour drive (I did, in fact, do all of the research proving that) but many of our tastings are at an entirely different level than the others, a much higher level. So, when you travel, hunt for wine tastings as much as, if not more than, you might hunt for that “special” bottle of wine. And when you get back to our slice of the Gulf Coast, come out to the tastings and see if you have a different perspective.