#1 Blog Assignment

 

Sebastian Giro-Martin

    I would make the argument that my previous experience with wine is more than the traditional American college student. My family emigrated to the United States from a small South American nation called Uruguay. This country borders both Brazil and Argentina. Just like the Argentinean culture, wine plays a pivotal role in the day-to-day consumption of food. I have never gone a single dinner in Uruguay without a bottle or two of red wine. That being said, I was not drinking the wine when I was young. Just like in the United States, most kids start their experience with alcohol with beer. This was the same timeline for me. I had my first drink right when the Covid-19 pandemic started. Recently graduated from high school, my father invited me to have a "cold one" with him. Since then, I have experiment and tasted various alcoholic beverages. The two main beverages being beer and wine. The wine that I started drinking, which is my favorite variety currently for its flavor and richness in the grape, is an Argentinean Cabernet Sauvignon. I tasted many different brands of Cabs, but my favorite was Trapiche.

    As I evolved my knowledge of wine, I tried different regions of Cabs. Specifically a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile by Casillero Del Diablo, which is my current favorite bottle to buy. It is the go to. For reference, every wine that I have consumed has been in a dinner or when enjoying the company of friends and family with food. Now, I couldn't always just drink Cabernet Sauvignon so I explored the Malbec variety as I was encouraged by my mother. My bottle of Malbec of choice is currently the Argentinean Alamos Malbec. I have since tried different varieties, but both of these, the Casillero Del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon and Alamos Malbec are my favorite wines. I have always enjoyed the more dry and bitter of taste in my alcohol hence my selection. Now you are probably asking yourself, "Sebastian? why have you not tried Uruguay's staple wine Tannat? Tannat is known to be an intense wine and more dry and bitter than both Cabernets and Malbecs." Well, it's just the Tannat is an expensive wine for me currently. That being said, I have purchased a bottle of Tannat just for this class. It ran me about $19. The specific bottle that I bought as a Uruguayan Pisano Tannat. A little interesting trivia, Tannat is only grown in either France or Uruguay.

    You have probably noticed that I have made no mention of white wines. This is because no one in my family enjoys white wine to be frank. I am looking forward to this class forcing me to remove myself from my comfort zone and try new varieties of wine. My current theories are that I will not be entirely thrilled about white wine and less thrilled with any other wines as I'm not one to experiment. ESPECIALLY, if a wine is mixed with any interesting flavors like citrus. Now to speak on the frequency of my consumption of wine or just alcohol for that matter. I rarely drink wine in a excess fashion. I'm not one to binge drink or just drink to get drunk. I use drinking as an event that allows for relationship building with friends with FOOD. It is very important for me to have food while drinking as this allows for better enjoyment of the alcohol and of the taste. Flavor is very important to me, hence my reason for not drinking mixed drinks. I like to drink very flavorful wine, rich scotch, and good beer, especially not watered down beer. This is a little intro into my mind of alcohol and wine. I look forward to this class and learning more of wine!