As far as my personal experiences with wine, I would say that it runs parallel with most college students. I've had all of the Franzia's and Andre's that most college kids indulge in. And although those wouldn't be my first...or second...or 3rd choice of alcoholic beverage, I'll gladly set aside a night every so often for a good "Tour de Franzia" and obviously a following day for recovery. I'm a die hard bourbon man myself, but there is always a time and a place for wine in my opinion, and those times can range from anywhere to an expensive dinner with the family to sneaking "wine juice boxes" into a movie theater.
My Mom is a wine drinker, not the alcoholic kind, but she's always seemed to want to push me in the wine direction. Because of her I have had my share of expensive wines, even as expensive as a couple hundred dollars on a special occasion such as my 21st birthday. She never condoned under age drinking, but that day made it obvious that she gladly welcomed a newly-of-age wine drinking partner. There was a bottle of 1986 Dom Perignon sitting in our kitchen wine rack for as long as I can remember and that night warranted an opening of that bottle. Since it obviously was not stored properly it could have been straight vinegar for all I knew. But to make it up to me she bought me that same wine to try the next day, which was fantastic to say the least.
After that I grew quite fond of some wines, specifically the reds. I think a good Cabernet Souvignon sets off a nice dinner perfectly. I've had Pinot's, Chardonnay's (Mom's choice of wine), Champagnes, Rose's, and several others that I can't remember off the top of my head, but not necessarily because I drank too much of it. While trying all these wines I could obviously tell that each had its own distinct taste, but never really tried to tell the exact differences between them. In regards to what I would like to learn in this class, I think it would be nice to know what to look for in order to tell the differences between the wines that I sample. It would be pretty chill to know where wines come from, why they're called what they're called, and the regions they hail from. And finally, there are a lot of types of wines out there that I still haven't tried, and I could really use a good reason to spend some of my parents' money at the Vintage Cellar in order to broaden my wine horizons. This class seems to suit that last idea pretty well.
