My Wine Journey
Welcome to my journey in wine. While my first experience in visiting wineries happened in 2008 in the Tuscan countryside. My passion for wine really begun on our first trip to the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 2011. Since then we have made six trips back to the rolling Dundee Hills and grown from timid tasters at the bar to knowledgable oenophiles looking for more unique and intimate experiences.
The trip to Tuscany was more about opportunity than a love for Italian wine. My wife was going through her MBA program and had an opportunity to join her professor and other students on a 10 day study abroad trip to Florence and Rome. My wife’s job has taken her to numerous countries around the world but I had never been out of the country so I decided to tag along. We went a few days early and wondered around Tuscany for a few days before meeting her classmates in Florence. We had some great adventures, midnight mass on Christmas Eve in a beautiful Italian church, and got our first experience visiting wineries. In the end it sparked a curiousity to explore more wine regions.
A common theme that will emerge as I share my wine journey. I tend towards the lighter, brighter wines while my wife tends towards the bigger, bolder wines. In 2011 I was enjoying some pinot noir from the Russian River Valley, most notably La Crema. Then we came across some Oregon wine from Amalie Robert. This led me to learn more about the Willamette Valley. Another theme you will discover about our lives is that while my wife loves the trappings of a big city, I tend towards a slower pace and reading about tasting in Newberg appealed to me. So in 2011 we made our first wine trip that has led to most of our vacations now containing at least a component of wine tasting. We have been to Willamette now six times and visited 57 wineries in that time. So a section of this website will be dedicated to exploring Oregon wines.
As noted, my wife tends towards bigger cities and bigger wines so of course after a few times in Willamette we made our first trip to Napa in 2014. With a couple wine trips under our belts, we now had a better idea of what we liked and how to put together our trips. That first trip to Napa helped us to solidify the types of tasting experiences to look for and how to most enjoy our time. It also began to help me more appreciate the exploration of different grape varietals, micro-climates and aspect. It wasn’t until years later when I began my formal wine education why these elements of wine growing look different between Napa and Willamette but I was fascinated at the similarities and differences in these wine growing regions. In 2011 I was enjoying some pinot noir from the Russian River Valley, most notably La Crema. Then we came across some Oregon wine from Amalie Robert. This led me to learn more about the Willamette Valley. Another theme you will discover about our lives is that while my wife loves the trappings of a big city, I tend towards a slower pace and reading about tasting in Newberg appealed to me. So in 2011 we made our first wine trip that has led to most of our vacations now containing at least a component of wine tasting. We have been to Willamette now six times and visited 57 wineries in that time. So a section of this website will be dedicated to exploring California wines.
The final main section of this website will be dedicated to wine education. I have spent 25 years teaching, coaching and working as an administrator in independent schools. If you would have told me when I was in college that I was going to be a teacher or school administrator I would have likely called you several colorful names. I wasn’t someone who loved school growing up but I knew how to play the game of school well enough to be successful at it. When I got the opportunity to coach I thought I would do it a couple years until I found a real job. I then fell in love with education and have spent all that time developing programs and schools founded on authentic learning. This idea that learning is not about regurgitating compliant answers but applying your learning to ask great questions through real world experiences. As I have continued my wine journey, I realized I was doing a lot of real world learning by tasting and visiting wine regions but I was lacking the true knowledge to ask great questions. So in the craziness that was 2020, I decided to embrace some formal wine education. That year I did my WSET Level 2 virtually and completed the certification with distinction. Having enjoyed the experience, I then signed up for the WSET Level 3 and continue to wait for my results to return from London. I hope to share my journey of completing my Level 3 certification and continuing on to receive my WSET Diploma in Wine.
So there you go. Like any good educator I have now laid out where I hope to take this website. Now comes the hard part. Following through on the mission of sharing my journey here and hopefully articulating my passion for wine and wine education.
