Welcome!

Welcome to The Wine Pursuit, a beginners guide to wine!  Wine is something I have always wanted to learn more about, but a few months ago I found myself wanting to go from novice to sommelier when a good friend and I were at a local tasting.  He knows a lot more about it than I do and he was explaining some of the basics to me as we sipped.  A very sophisticated and somehow whimsical older man (think Royal Tenenbaum) near us leaned over and said, "Sorry to interrupt, but once you learn wine-- the world opens."  Immediately an image of me taking a sip of wine and then soaring on a magic carpet into the Beatle's yellow submarine world came to mind.  I turned to my friend, wide-eyed, and said, "I want to go there."  Before he could say, "Huh?" I turned back to Royal Tenenbaum, but- poof!- he was gone.  I don't know who he was, but that one sentence instilled in me a strong desire to learn about all things wine.

Now, there are a few obstacles in the way.  First, wine tasting is a complicated affair.  There are the different types, the innumerable flavors, the variety of grapes, flavors by location, the food combinations-- it's enough to send anyone into a coma.  Second, wine is expensive.  At least a lot of people will say that wine worth drinking is expense.  I say, "Nay sir!"  

I have been on my wine pursuit for some time and it hasn't been easy.  Every wine vocabulary list I see is three miles long, and frankly, I don't have time to read an entire book about wine.  Another problem is that a lot of wine recommendations out there are just not in my budget.  I want to expand my collection, but seriously, there's got to be more for a poor girl than Yellowtail!  So anyway, my novice/lower-class status was making it a bit hard to become a wine snob and the internet wasn't being very understanding.  

I've decided to create this site chronicling my wine pursuit and I hope it will assist in yours.  I'm going to sift through all that vocabulary and  get down to basics.  Also, I'm on a quest to find some fabulous wines for us fabulously broke people.  I'm setting the limit at $20 for the most expensive wine I will feature.  

I don't know if The Wine Pursuit will result in a magic carpet ride to Beatles land but I hope it will be helpful in gaining knowledge on tastes and knowing what to look for in a wine.  At the very least, be able to put together an intelligent sentence or two at a wine tasting.  

Cheers!