Drink what you like

There is a feeling I sometimes get from the cognoscenti of the wine world that they intentionally make things more difficult for the average person to know about wine in an effort to aggrandize what they do. Of course, this isn't actually true, the world of wine is incredibly complicated, especially when you take into account that each country (and sometimes states or regions within that country) have their own byzantine set of laws and traditions that govern the way wine is made and consumed. So I understand why wine professionals can come across to the masses as looking down upon them or otherwise disengaged from the way the majority of the world interacts with wine.

It is our job as wine professionals, especially those of us that are educators, to help make some of the intricacies of the wine world accessible to everyone. With that thought in mind let me give you the single most important piece of information I can to help you with your enjoyment of wine, drink what you like. That's right, if you like it, please feel free to drink it and enjoy it. It doesn't matter if someone thinks it shouldn't be paired with that dish or not, if it's the wrong season for that type of wine, or simply not what everyone else is drinking. If you like it then it is the right wine for you.

Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't listen to wine professionals. They actually know a fair bit about wine and many of them are well versed in food and the interaction of the two. If they are good educators, they can explain something about the wine or why the food and wine work together to heighten your experience. If they are part of a wine staff at a restaurant, they can offer suggestions on wine and food pairings that once again are designed to heighten the customer experience.

The bottom line however, is that you are drinking the wine therefore you should enjoy it. You should not be drinking something just because someone told you that you should. If there is one thing that research in this area has shown, it is that every palate is different. So don't let anyone tell you what you should like, drink what you like and know that you're doing the right thing.