I’ve been undergoing a change this year. Or, more specifically, a narrowing.

While I’ve always been a big fan of both beer and wine, lately I’ve been shifting my focus much more to the latter. I stopped trying to keep up with new craft beer releases in Toronto. I haven’t even been to the reborn Volo, which would have seemed unimaginable a few years ago. I’ve even mostly stopped drinking it, except for when I take advantage of a newly-discovered trove of excellent beers at the Rosedale Diner that turn half-priced from 3-5. Anyway.

In lieu of beer I’ve been leaning toward wine. I have lots of it at home, I live down the street from an excellent all-Ontario wine bar, and I’m taking an intro wine course at George Brown. People laugh a bit when I say that because it sometimes seems to them like I know a lot about wine, but really I’ve just tasted a lot. This course has been super helpful in understanding a bit more of the method, the nomenclature, and how to properly describe what I get on the nose and palate. We’ve already covered the major areas of France, Eastern Europe more generally (flitting over Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Greece), Italy (which I missed whilst in Chicago), and, yesterday, Spain & Portugal.

Earlier this week I happened to also get an early look at Spain in a tasting event with John Szabo. He walked us through wines from several regions of Spain, throwing in notes on food, history, beauty, architecture, etc. as well. It all just made me so excited for my trip (or trips?) to Spain early next year.

I mean, it’s not like I needed an excuse to get more into wine. But here we are.

.:.

Cover photo by Kym Ellis on Unsplash