Quick!
What’s your favorite song?
Is it fast or slow? Melodic, harmonic, atonal? Instrumental or a cappela? A ballad, a ditty, a jingle? Acoustical or electronic? Blues, rap, country, jazz, folk? Orchestral or traditional?
Too many questions? Too many options? Maybe your musical tastes are too diverse to pin down? Maybe it depends on the mood, the hour, the day? Maybe context is important? Or maybe, just maybe, context is everything.
By ‘context’, I mean everything else. Who you’re with. Where you are. Time of day. Weather conditions. Your mood. Everything else. Everything matters, because although you may really enjoy music, all kinds, but what you’d prefer to listen to at a given moment depends on who, what, where, when and how. The song that you really enjoy hearing at one moment, annoys the crap out of you at a different moment.
That’s normal. Reasonable.
Now, how about wine? What’s your favorite?
(I think you know where I’m going with this.)
Why isn’t it the same? Why pick just one one? Why box (no pun intended, hee hee) yourself in? Why can’t you really like wine, many wines and only profess your favorite depending upon context? Why are you forced to declare your wine allegiance? What’s wrong with wine promiscuity?
That’s it in a nutshell. You are promiscuous. Indiscriminate. Casual. Lacking commitment. Flighty. Unserious.
Believe or not, there are people out there who will judge you on your wine choice. And if it is too…frivolous, too trivial, too foolish, they will assume that it says something about you, your character, your worth.
Because, as an adult, as a grownup, as a respectable person, you must drink (and respect and ponder and extol) only serious wine. Big wine. Expensive wine. Wine that someone else says is good.
Bullshit.
The wine doesn’t care. The song doesn’t care. You shouldn’t either.
Oh, for sure, the winemaker cares. The musician cares. They’ve invested time, energy, resources, creativity. They want a return on that investment. That’s fair. That’s honest. And if you respect that effort, and enjoy the finished product, (the song, symphony, lyrics, beat, finish, taste, label, finish) you might buy, listen, or drink it again.
So, the question begs…why do others care? Why is it important for other people, who have no skin in the game, to care about what you like to drink or listen to? Or eat or wear, for that matter? When and why did they/we get so judgmental about wine? Or music or clothes or jewelry or body art or any other of thousands of personal decisions that have no influence on their lives.
But I digress. This is about really wine… if you think wine is pleasurable, if you enjoy diverse wines, or especially, if you don’t enjoy diverse wines, tune out everyone else and drink what you like. Listen to what you like. Wear what you like. Celebrate yourself; sing your very own wine song.