Food and Wine and Things

I’m a 20s-something oenophile/studier of viticulture/all around liquor geek hailing from Calgary, Alberta. My foray into the wine industry was almost a complete fluke; I needed a job and the world-class, boutique wine shop near my home in Calgary was hiring. Oddly enough, they were only looking for someone with experience on a cash register (minimal wine knowledge required). With plenty of boring retail experience and the ability to bullshit my way through just about anything, I fit the description.

It was there that I discovered and cultivated my passion for wine (and beer and whisky and cheese and…) and it was there that I learned a lot of what I know about the industry. Not by sitting in a classroom or reading wine encyclopedias, but by talking to wine makers, ambassadors, and people with more passion than I had ever experienced in my short 19 years. To this day, wine geeks are still some of the most passionate people I know.

I lucked out. I got a serious head start pretty early out of the “legal drinking age” gate. I have had the opportunity to experience things that 99% of the world will never get to experience. I have tasted wine that enthusiasts twice my age only dream about. And for that I am grateful and inspired.

I am currently an undergraduate at UBC, studying sustainability and agriculture. I will be attending UC Davis in January for six months of intensive studies in viticulture. My ultimate goal is to have the ability to examine the effects that climate change has and will have on viticulture and wine production, as well as to develop solutions for sustainable viticulture in the future.

This blog is basically where I come to spew the geeky, super neat wine related things that I have learned and people are tired of listening to me talk about. Seriously. I go on forever sometimes. I spent an entire week once trying to explain Trockenbeerenauslese to classmates in a wine lab because I had just tasted one for the first time and spent hours researching it. Take note that I did not taste it in class, I was not the instructor, and they definitely did not care.

I hope that you care.