Wine and Family

 Wine (and whisky) is how my family bonds. 

I can’t remember exactly when the family wine drinking started. In middle school, my parents had a “wine circle” with their friends. Once I turned 18, I started getting poured a glass, and certain wines became synonymous with major life milestones. For me, getting into college is synonymous with Chateau d’yQuem, and for my sister, her first job offer is a 1997 Chateau Margaux. And while we both got introduced to wine through some “great achievement,” over the years, we have all started drinking together regularly. 

With my sister on the East Coast, me on the West Coast, and my parents out in Asia, we no longer have as many chances to sit in the same room and converse. So, now when we are all in the same city, which wines we will eat with dinner becomes a grand ordeal. All of us visit the neighborhood liquor store (K&L) and load a shopping cart of wine. My dad and sister argue over how many bottles of wine to bring to a restaurant; I now know the corkage policy of too many restaurants. And at dinner, my parents fight over who drank the remnants of my mom’s wine when she left the table to use the restroom. Anyone who has ever had dinner with us will have experienced this chaos firsthand; to this date, nobody has been able to drive back after a family dinner with the Kims. 

I’m in this class because although I have tasted a variety of wines (mostly French), I have no idea why I like the taste of certain ones more than others. I’m curious about the price points (some of which seem ludicrous!), and across different countries, how I can find wines with similar flavor profiles. After many difficulties trying to ship certain wines from stores across the U.S. (New Jersey / New York), I’ve also become curious about licensing and distribution regulation. 

I’d love to come away from this class with relevant, practical knowledge to take back to my family. I want to be able to source and procure wines that we would all enjoy and be able to select wines I would enjoy from a wine list. Who knows, maybe with some luck, I will end up in the wine / alcohol industry, too!