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I fell in love.

I fell in love with...

I fell in love.  Thirty one years it took, but I fell in love.  However this love is different. This love is more of a passionate infatuation.  The culprit to have taken my heart, mind and body hostage?  Wine.

Yes, I know that was anti-climatic.  That wasn’t were I seem to be going, yet here I am.  In love with a beverage that has very little nutritional value.  Some abuse this love, and I can see why.  I’m not  speaking in alcoholic terms.  I’m speaking in the complexity of such drink.

Please, understand, I did not grow up in the most privileged of conditions.  The taste of “Tang” still lingers in my childhood nightmares.  It’s pretty sad when I realize the juices I used to drink, were not really juice at all.  Who would have thought that Kool-Aid doesn’t grow on trees.  I would have sworn differently growing up.

Yet, here I am.  Thirty one years of not understanding what wine was about.  I hated the way it tasted.  It was bitter and scorned.  What I failed to realize, it wasn’t the wine that was bitter.  It was my life.

Maybe I’m overly stating what my new-found passion is, but the truth is that now I understand.  I understand why some people love onion.  I don’t.  I understand why some people love.  I didn’t.

So again, here I am.  Learning about one of the oldest beverages in the world.  From the times of pre-recorded history, humans learned to make wine.  It didn’t take long.  I used to drink it just to get drunk.  Get a bottle and finish it in five minutes.  I didn’t understand the taste, or the headache the morning after.

I decided to give it a try.  A real, honest to goodness try.  It paid off.  I learned how wine is made.  The different types of wine.  The different methods of enjoyment.  What is wine?  I learned that.

Little by little I started appreciating the flavors.  The smells.  The complexity of such gift.  I found out a lot about me through wine.  Each bottle is different than the next, and the complexity and variety of each serving is pretty similar to my life.

I can taste beyond the bitterness.  I can smell beyond the alcohol.  I can uncover hidden flavors, which were always there, but now I can appreciate them.  My life is equally interesting, at least to me.  My life’s a bold Cabernet Sauvignon, sometimes.  Other times I’m as clear as a Chardonnay.  Others, I’m a sweet White Zinfandel.

Wine is a work of art.  It’s a painting dressed as a drink.  The colors, the shapes, they’re all there.  Opening the eyes, nose, taste buds.  Just like life.

Yeah, I’m still new in my relationship with wine, so I am hoping it turns out to be what I hope it will.  Now I understand a lot of things.  Those that abuse wine, do not understand it.  Those that abuse wine, do not love it.  Just like life.

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