Reflections: My first wine tasting

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of conducting my first official wine tasting.  A bunch of the crew at Transcend wanted me to do a wine tasting for them, and I consented.  We started off the night with a basic introduction of what comprises flavour and aroma in wines, and then moved onto a tasting based on my own systematic training as a level III WSET certified wine guy.  The feedback from the T-crew was universally positive, which was nice for me, but more importantly, it was a great opportunity to put all of my wine knowledge to good use.  More than that though, was the fun I had in moving from wine to coffee in terms of analogies and crossover.  As I was walking the crew through the wine tastings, it was just a natural perspective to shift to coffee, both in terms of tasting, aroma and agriculture.  So at the end of the evening, I was left with the distinct understanding that there is much which ties the two worlds together, and when it comes to tasting and deriving a systematic approach to evalutating both beverages, we can bridge the gap and talk a very similar language.  We will also be doing a wine tasting at Transcend on a monthly basis now, and I look forward to putting some of all of this info in my brain to good use.  It's Christmas, drink some great bottles of wine this holiday season with folks that are important to you.