Wine

Wine is an incredible thing but the culture around it can suck. I was fortunate to have some exposure to it early in life when I worked at a wine company but it wasn't until later that I actually started to learn more about it.

Here are tips for how to learn about wine:

Find a local wine shop

The proprietor almost always works there and will have curated the selection themselves. Go in and chat them up, the whole reason they are running a wine shop is 1) they know and love wine and 2) they want to share that with others. They can serve as trusted guides and if you keep going back they will start picking up on your tastes as you tell them what you liked and disliked from the previous trip and be able to make great recommendations.

Buy 6 to 12 bottles at a time

Not only will this get you a 10-20% discount at most shops, it will also give you a chance to explore some commonality in a focused manner (see "go deep" below). Pick out a few different themes to explore (country, region, varietal, wine-making style) and buy a few bottles from each. This will give you a chance to get an understanding of that particular area.

Go deep

Once you find something you like, dive into the region and grape(s). When I drink a wine I really like I generally 1) try other wines from that winery, 2) try other wines in the same style from that region and 3) try wines made from the same grapes but from a different region or in a different style.

Getting this specific knowledge about a particular grape or region makes it fun to go to a restaurant or wine shop because you'll be able to look at what they have going in that category and be able to ask questions or order based on your experience. This creates a virtuous cycle as your knowledge leads to new knowledge now that you know what to look for and have some reference points to compare with.

Read about what you drink

When you drink a wine you like take a minute to look up the grapes, region or winery. Knowing more about the people and place a wine comes from will increase your appreciation for the wine (that's free value!). You'll also start to pick up on certain patterns to your preferences whether geographic, climatic or stylistic (coastal, high-elevation, volcanic soil, etc).

Drink with friends

Drinking with friends is more fun. It's also more cost effective and can multiply your exposure. If you spend $20 but get to try 4 different wines it's a multiplier on your tastings per dollar. You'll also have people to talk about the wine with, learn about what they've been drinking, pick up tasting notes.

Learn to taste wine

The simplest way to get better at picking out tasting notes is to start with the idea of what tasting notes you are looking for, i.e. memorize all the possible tasting notes (dark fruit, red fruit, floral, citrus, herb) and then run through them in your mind as you taste and smell and different ones will jump out.

Learn the basic jargon

No one outside a field enjoys hearing field-specific jargon, but learning it is inevitable.

Terroir, in French "land", refers to all the environmental factors that influence a specific crop. These factors include climate, soil composition, geological features and even farming practices. Together these form a certain "character" that will be expressed by the wine. The concept of terroir has been adopted in the understanding of other artisanal crops as well such as coffee, cocoa, hops, agave, cannabis and tea.

Old / New World, Europe / everywhere else.

Body, how heavy the wine feels in the mouth.

Nose, the aroma of the wine.

In order to not look like an ass try not to use it unless the people you are with are familiar.

Drink what you like

It's easy to fool yourself into always drinking "better" (read: more expensive) wines. Exploration is great but when you find a great value you love it's time to exploit. This will ensure you drink more wine that you love and also keeps you off the treadmill of hedonism and full of gratitude for the fact you're drinking better wine than the kings of yore.

Have fun

Drinking wine is fun but you'll ruin it for yourself and those around you if you start taking yourself too seriously. Enjoy the wine but enjoy drinking it with your friends more.