How The Wine Noob Came to Be

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the very first post on The Wine Noob blog!

Let's start off with some background information. I'm 18 years old, and I've been tasting wines with my family for my entire life. My parents are both from Italy, and I've been raised with a very wine-friendly culture since the day I was born. I remember when I was just 8 years old, on one of our Sunday lunches after church when I had my first sip of wine. My memory isn't perfect, but I remember hating it. My father, despite being aware that I didn't take to it very well, continued making me taste wines (just a sip, don't get the wrong idea) every Sunday. For this, I'm very thankful.

This past August, my parents opened up a wine and spirits store in Tuckahoe, NY. It was my last summer before starting college, and my father wanted me and my older brother to be very involved with the business, so I had to miss seeing and saying goodbye to all of my friends before they all went off to college. I resented the store for a little while because of that, there's no doubt about it, but in retrospect I think it was for the best. Between hours of school and work, I realized that I've had this passion for the wonderful world of wine fused into my biological makeup. To be honest, I've actually cut class a few times so that I could come into work a little bit earlier (and stop giving me that look, I haven't regretted doing that for one second)

One day, when business was slow, I started reading Kevin Zraly's The Ultimate Wine Companion, where I first heard about Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is one of the most recognized names in the wine world, right up there with Robert Parker. Gary is most known for his video blogs (WineLibrary TV), and for his two great books, Crush It and The Thank You Economy. From his video blogs and his books, Gary has inspired me to start my own blog. You may think I'm just copying him, and in a way I am, but I think what I'm doing is going to be pretty different from what Gary did, despite our countless similarities, (we're both huge Jet fans!)

(You can learn more about Gary at http://garyvaynerchuk.com/, and follow him at @garyvee on Twitter, I'll mention  him every once in a while,  so I suggest you check him out, you won't be disappointed)

So let's wrap this up. I am just 18 years old, so in the grand scheme of things I know very little about wine. I know a thing or two, but I'm not satisfied with that. There's much more to wine than being able to notice a note of smoky leather in the nose of a red Burgundy. What I'll be doing is reviewing and critiquing a few wines every week, and hopefully down the road, I'll be able to come back to some of these early wines and see what I notice with more experience in the art of drinking wine. Without further ado, my first critique will be coming out next week.

Stay tuned, and thanks for being patient and reading through my lengthy introduction!

(Just to note, I am underage, but I spit out my wine when I taste it, and it is all done in a family environment, so its 100% legal)