My Personal Experience with Wine Thus Far

 Hi! I am Sophie Pickering and I decided to take the Geography of Wine Class this semester because my experience with wine thus far has been minuscule at best. I grew up watching my parents drink wine and seeing it handed out when we went to Church, but I was never really curious enough to sneak a sip. It became a very inconsequential drink in my life until I turned 21. Even then, at Virginia Tech not many of my friends choose to drink wine. Where I found myself confronted with the daunting lingo of wine, was when I went home on breaks or on vacation with my family. A lot of the adults in my extended family enjoy wine as part of our social family events. Once I was old enough, I began getting offered wine at these various events, and usually there were various options. I often declined or deferred to my older sister because I did not understand the difference between the types of wine I was offered. 

The first wine I ever had was Barefoot, which probably says a lot about my knowledge on wine at that time. It is cheap and sweet and leaves you with a bad headache the next day. For awhile, I though this type of wine was the only wine available within my price-range, and I decided to stay away from wine all together. However, when I went home on breaks, I was slowly introduced to an assortment of wines. I enjoyed trying them at home, but still assumed I could not afford them on my broke-college-kid budget. Also, the ones I tried at home were always wines my parents enjoyed, not necessarily ones I would prefer. I joined the class in hopes of keeping up with the wine vernacular when I go home and to not be nervous ordering wine out. Then, at the beginning of this class, my friends and I went to a free wine tasting with Randall at Vintage Cellar. It changed my whole perception on wine. We tried multiple wines that were not too expensive to buy and gave us a range of flavors and types. It made me realize just how many different wines there are, and that there are definitely some good, affordable wines out there I might really like!