I have more appreciation for Rembrandt than I do Picasso. I have as much appreciation for pretty pictures I see at Garden Ridge pottery as I do for both of them.

I understand that there is a difference between fine art and the guy who is drawing caricatures at the county fair,  but I don’t really understand what makes one artist more talented than another.

I know nothing about the selection of media, the types of brushes that are used, the pencil strokes and level of difficulty and all of the things that go in to creating a masterpiece.  I know that I enjoy looking at Jackson Pollock’s paintings, but I also have no idea why he’s considered a fine artist… I know nothing of his skill. And really, if it looks nice, and I like it, what difference does it make?  Why is one $3,000,000 at Sotheby’s and one $49.99 at Kirklands?

I know that I love Tchaikovsky… but I couldn’t tell you why. And, truth be told, if you were playing it in the background and immediately followed it up with Beethoven, I don’t know that I could tell the difference, but I know that I like both.  Then again, I like Air Supply, too…  So should I be allowed to judge?  Why is one art and the other isn’t… or at least isn’t as highly respected?

I adore good writing, and I do have some understanding of that.  This is why even though I found the concept of a BDSM novel intriguing, I couldn’t ever get through more than thirty pages of 50 Shades of Gray.  I wanted to like it.  I just couldn’t.  There was no art in that novel.

This occurred to me as I was thinking about friends I have who are confused by my love of wine.  Many think that 1.  I’m a heavy drinker who uses wine as an excuse to get drunk because it’s classier than the shots of goldschlager I did in my 20’s or 2.  That I am a silly snob who has been duped by propaganda.

Actually, I don’t think either of the above is true… so I’ve been trying to put my finger on what it is that I enjoy so much about the whole wine experience, and I’ve come to the conclusion that wine is art that takes a lifetime to appreciate.

I may not truly understand why the Mona Lisa is considered one of the greatest paintings ever made and would cost around 790 million dollars today, but I DO understand why Domaine de la Romanee Conti is widely considered the world’s best pinot. (The average price per bottle is 13 thousand).

I may not be able to tell you the difference between Monet and Manet, but if you gave me a French burgundy and a Sonoma pinot (which are the same grape), I’d have a relatively good chance of telling you which is which just by sniffing it.  I’d have an idea of whether it’s an old wine or a new wine just by looking at the edges in the glass.

And I know FAR less about wine than the majority of most of my wine loving friends.

I’ve only been trying to learn about wine for about 12 years now.  It started in my late 20s.  At that time, I was more alone in my crusade.  Most of my friends didn’t really care about wine except liking the taste of it.  But I really wanted to go to California for my 30th birthday to go to check out where some of it was made and learn more about the process.  I wanted to try all different kinds of grapes in different price ranges every time we went to the store.

I went to Napa/Sonoma (which are quite different areas) for the first time for my honeymoon when I was 34 and I was COMPLETELY hooked.

I learned then that, in most of your premier wines, the grapes are picked by hand and only the very best grapes are used.  In fact, the whole process is done by hand.  It’s incredibly labor intensive.  You never just smash grapes and leave them to turn into wine.  There’s so much more that goes into it.  Some wine makers only want to pick on certain days of the month because of moon cycles and how they can affect… Some pick in the dark, some pick in the early morning hours.  They plant different grapes in different types of soil with different sun exposures. They worry about things like hang time and the size of grape clusters…

Every part of wine making is this delicate balance… it’s art.  What type of water do you use?  How do you choose to ferment–concrete?  stainless steel?  oak?   How much time does it spend on the skins?   What are the rules of your AVA?  and on… and on… and on…

So… in the decade that I’ve been interested in wine, what I’ve learned more than anything else is that I know nothing…

I’ve learned that the whole process, from dirt to bottle to what type of glass should you use to drink it, is fascinating to me… and all of those things have involved countless man hours and painstaking trial and error.

So when someone asks me how I can spend $80 on a bottle of wine when I can get the same grape for $7.99, it’s hard for me to explain to them about the art… and how I can appreciate the art in the bottle.  BUT that I’d LOVE a $7.99 bottle of wine that had the same story as my $80 bottle…that was created out of art.  I get no joy in spending more money on wine…I just understand WHY some is more expensive.  And much like I wouldn’t pay for a Picasso, I rarely buy an expensive wine… but I appreciate why it costs what it does.

And the truth be told, I simply don’t LIKE Boone’s farm anymore.  As I’ve learned, my palate has changed.  If you give me an $8 wine that has been open for four days, I’m not going to like it.  I wish I did… but I can’t read 50 Shades of Gray after learning to love the words of  Annie Dillard; and I don’t like to drink Menage a Trois after tasting a wine crafted by Nils Venge.  It’s not about the price… it’s about the art.  Menage is bulk grapes… the good and the bad ones go in there…  it’s filled with grape extract to give it a sweeter taste for the casual wine drinker.  I can taste all of that, and it doesn’t make it something that I’d enjoy savoring.  I’ll slam it like goldshlager…  but that’s not what wine is about to me anymore.

There’s an art to all of it…. the soil, the pruning, the picking, … how much time do you let it sit in the barrel?  how much time in the bottle before release?  Then there’s an art to it AFTER that…  how much does it change as it ages?  What is the bottle variation?

Heck, there’s even the art to tasting!   You can taste wine as a professional.  You can recommend wine professionally… and those are two DIFFERENT jobs.  People become world renowned wine TASTERS.  There are entire books devoted to the art of tasting.

I love the whole ritual of wine… the sniffing, the swirling, the swishing…  the discussion of it…   how it makes my food taste,  how the food makes my wine taste.  I love the appreciation factor of it, and I love to share my appreciation with others.

…and if it occasionally leads to a buzzy feeling reminiscent of my goldshclager days… well, I’ll call that a bonus.  🙂