A funny thing happened earlier this summer. It was one of those summer days where it was just tolerable enough to sit outside if you had the right cooling agent. The agent in question that day was a bottle of the new Charles and Charles Rose. My wife and I opened the chilled bottle and had a taste.

I’m pretty methodical when it comes to tasting wine. I generally take a sniff, swirl, sniff again, sip, slosh, reflect, and then jot down some notes in one of my tasting journals. If I’m tasting with my wife, I always ask her what aromas/flavors that she’s picking up in a given wine. When I first started posing this question to her, her answer generally ranged from “I have no idea” to a sarcastic “wine” or “grapes.” Over time, probably realizing that I wasn’t going to stop asking, she relented and began to play along.

Back to the aforementioned hot summer day. We took our first sip at roughly the same time. Midway through my “reflection period”, my train of thought was interrupted by her voice. “Watermelon, citrus, and floral notes, and maybe some kiwi.” I stuck my nose back in the glass, had a taste, and realized that she was pretty much right on the money. I couldn’t help but think about the evolution that we’ve gone through as wine drinkers. It’s a funny thing–I can point to certain times/events that have affected and changed the way that I think about wine, but many of the memories that stick out the most are related to her. A couple of my favorites are as follows:

• Memory 1- Our first Napa trip was in 2009, less than a year after we were married. If the wine was red, she didn’t want anything to do with it. She stuck to the sparkling wines, Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs–pretty much anything white. Needless to say, I typically got two pours worth of Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot, or Cabernet Sauvignon at each winery. I may have gotten her to try a few reds, but the result was futile.
• Memory 2- In 2010, we took our first trip to Sonoma County, specifically to the Russian River and Dry Creek valleys. Again, I pushed her to try some of the reds. She took kindly to a few of the Zinfandels and Pinot Noirs that we tried–and we definitely tried some good ones on the trip. Most importantly, she was acknowledging that red wine didn’t necessarily suck.
• Memory 3- In 2011, we took a return trip to the Russian River and Dry Creek Valleys (did I mention that we really love these regions). I was a very proud husband–I don’t think that there’s a wine that she turned down–Syrah, Grenache, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel–you name it, she tried it.
• Memory 4- This is by far my most entertaining memory. We were at a wedding that served your standard beer/mixed drinks/lower-priced wines. Telling her I was going to get a glass of Cab, I asked her if I could grab her a glass of wine. Her response: “No thanks. I don’t think the wine is going to be any good here.” Wow, had I created a wine monster? Well, it turns out that she was right–the wine wasn’t very good.
• Memory 5- Our recent trip to the Walla Walla Valley was basically a tasting marathon. Three days, twenty wineries, and well over a hundred wines, and she hung in there for every minute of it. I’m convinced that if we would have hit winery #21 she might have inflicted some physical pain on me (actually, I think she might have mentioned something to that effect). Still, she was quite the trooper.

A couple of weeks after I got showed up at our Charles and Charles Rose home tasting, we got some big news. Our first baby is on the way!! We have until the end of February to get as ready as possible for parenthood. I’m still allowed to drink as much wine as I choose on one condition–it can’t be any of the bottles that we purchased on our trips, as these are to be shared at a later date. It’s the easiest deal that I’ve ever made.