My Experience with Wine

    Growing up it was my mother’s ritual to have one glass of wine with dinner, always red and always dry. Little Yulia found the drink very bitter and distasteful. Why would anyone choose to drink fermented grape juice instead of the normal one? I never quite understood that until I started to drink myself. It turned out that alcohols were all bitter, but when consumed changed your mood. 

    My mother always said wine makes her feel like no other alcohol does, it relaxes her while not clouding the brain. Do different liquors have different types of buzz? I still don't know, to me intoxication is just intoxication. However, drinking wine definitely felt like a sophisticated consumption of frowned upon alcoholic drinks. Drinking dry, red wine was an acquired taste that came with age and rejecting the beverage after being a full adult was childish. So, I started to appreciate it, in part to earn respect from my family. 

    Once I left the nest of comfort my parents built and travelled across the globe to the United States, I sadly had to take a 3-year drinking gap. As much as it helped me save money, it sadly set me back on my journey of sophisticated alcohol consumption. In the years of being underaged I discovered many "wines" that had absolutely not right to be called that. It turned out that the cheapest wine tasted exactly like the normal grape juice and had absolutely no sophistication. In addition, when I would buy the well-known real wines, my friends had zero interest in even giving it a chance. 

    By taking this course, not only do I want to further my linguistic knowledge of wine, but also challenge my taste buds with trying things I wouldn't otherwise. Even though it will be years until I become a true wine connoisseur, this shall be my first step. Hopefully it will be a fulfilling experience, through which I discover my favorite wines and people to drink them with.