by Duane Kuehn

Created on: April 20, 2010

The best way to learn about wine is to enjoy oneself while learning. Taking oneself too seriously or acting the wine snob to others will only make one a bore and one's journey into the world of wine boring.

 My mistake, of course. The lady did not like “dry” wines and I brought a very popular “sweet” Italian White Merlot to the table.

 “This is a dry wine”, she chastised me.

 “I'm sorry, let me get you something else, I must be confused.” A restaurant guest is not always right but they are never wrong, the motto of a good waiter. I held back the urge to say, “Lady, is this something that happened in the last twenty-four hours, or were you born stupid.” All the same, I knew that she probably learned “sweet” and “dry” from some other waiter or waitress in a restaurant.

 “That's okay, we'll keep this one now, it's something different.” She likes it but needs to save face in front of her friends. She doesn't want to say she is confused “dry” wine and I have no problem anyone looking to “save face”.

 This guest is one of those who want to learn about wine, too bad she has been misled so early in her learning.

 If one wants to learn about wine, the best thing is to read a bit about wine. The second best thing is to ask others. Best not to pretend you know what you are talking about until you get a few “sweets an dry's” under your own belt, so to speak.

 It is best, in fact, to pretend you don't know what you do know. Asking someone else, especially a waiter or bartender, a simple question can let you know if you might depend on the answer to a more difficult question from this person. An “I don't know”, is the most honest answer you can find in your average restaurant, because frankly, there are a lot of service people out there without a clue. Most of them only drink beer, Jack Daniels or Strawberry Hill.

 The first thing one should know is that “sweet” is just that, sweet. Dry is “not-sweet” and sometimes labeled “sec”. The important thing in this being that very few “newbies” to wine like a dry wine. Hence, if you have guests, you might like to have a sweeter wine on hand, even if you are serving a red meat.

 Wine is, of course, a matter of taste. Today, it is said that there is no 'rule' of reds and whites. This is true, wine

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