Our last day in Toronto; we had probably walked several miles (sorry, wrong country, kilometers ;)) that day, with staring from our (absolutely awesome) bed and breakfast in Cabbagetown, walking to the University of Toronto, and the crystal monsters of Royal Ontario Museum, to the piers, and all around Toronto islands. Needless to say, we were pooped. But that wasn’t going to prevent us from going out! We ended up going to a Cabbagetown neighbourhood bar by the name of Ben Wick’s pub. Little did we know… we would be the only people in the entire bar. Granted, it was a Monday evening. Granted, it was Easter. Granted, it was 10pm. But… huh? I’m almost convinced it’s a mafia front. Because simple arithmetic surmises that a business with no customers would no longer stay a business…

I forgot who — someone thought we should order something local. After the (slightly strange) waiter rattled off the list, and the only local wine available was of the Niagara varietal that everyone with taste apparently disliked, we went with a South African sauvignon blanc that ended up being inoffensive and unremarkable. After dispatching that and a batch of nacho chips, we went for a red for the second bottle. The (fast-talking) waiter heavily recommended an Australian shiraz (after dropping his voice to talk trash about the other offerings) — and after we acquiesced, he brought over a bottle of Jindalee Estates 2007 Shiraz.

“If you don’t like it, I’ll drink it,” he said matter-of-factly, as he poured us the shiraz.

Wow.

It was good.

It was real good.

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One of the jokes between Neil & I is that we’re the exact same person. It can be generally taken that if I enjoyed a particular food or drink, Neil would probably enjoy it also, and vice versa. In fact, watching us eat can be rather disturbing, as our plates tend to become communal property. Anyhow, this near-universal principle hit a roadblock at our recent wine tasting at Wagner Vineyards by Seneca Lake in upstate New York wine country. Admittedly, our tastes in wine haven’t been as similar as our tastes in beer (and I would argue that my taste is cocktails is quite a bit less cavity-licious than his), but we’ve never been at such a complete disagreement before.

After a couple ho-hum tastings of their reds offerings, we got into the better stuff — Rieslings, Gerwutztraimer, etc. Our first taste of their white wine was of a rather obscure grape, the Niagara grapes, crossed between Concord and white Cassady grapes and created in the same region its grown. A sniff yielded intense intense fruity scents, mainly of grape juice. It tasted exactly like it was scented. Amazing!!

Me:” WOW! This is… this is truly delicious! O_O”
Neil & other friend: “… This… this is really weird.” *spits it out*

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Let’s face it. Wine is an acquired taste. Unless of course you’re fairly Mediterranean in origin, in which case I might even argue, it’s still an acquired taste, you just acquired it at an age that you don’t have any memories of. It’s hard to remember, after discovering wine, how much you disliked it before, and so, when a non-wino stayed with me over the summer, I was continually surprised by what she did and did not like. I did my best to test out new wines in hopes that we might find a collection of easy-going wines that could be shared over dinner… and so here’s a primer, if you ever have to introduce a non-drinking friend to wine.

1. Mixing with fruit juice is a start. Sangria, as we all know, is the nectar of the gods. A shiraz/merlot mixed with some pomegranate juice is half the reason why I started drinking wine. Bellinis (white peach puree & prosecco) & mimosas (orange juice & champagne) are always well-liked. However, none of this being actual real wine, I find that it doesn’t prepare a person for liking the taste of just wine by itself. If anything, it sometimes causes a bit of a mental sour/bitter shock when the new wine drinker tries wine alone.
2. Thirst-quenching, boring, easy wines, without all the complexity that you find interesting, tend to be good. One that everyone’s liked so far is vinho verde, literally “green wine” in Portuguese. While not exactly “sparkling”, its got just the slightest hint of a carbonated kick. Goes down easy, and incredibly cheap to boot. I think Trader Joe’s has a $4 version that’s pretty decent.
3. Sweet wines work well. Sweet German reislings, especially cheaper table wines ones like Kabinett, worked wonderfully.It’s a hard balance, though, of finding one that’s just sweet enough without being an overpowering dessert-type wine. In this regard, I’ve had more like finding friendlier wines in the cheap category, rather than the riper category of German wines, or, spätleses (p.s. Germany, can ya pleeease do something about your wine classification system? something a little more understandable for us mere Earthlings?).
4. However, low alcohol content is more important than sweetness. Or at the very least, the scent of a low alcohol content wine. I had a flash of brilliance one day; I should give my friend some port! Port is sweet! Port is delicious! She’ll love port! Well, let’s just say that experiment failed horribly, despite a lovely Stilton blue cheese accompaniment. Apparently port reeks of pure ethanol, and made it completely unpalatable. So I guess the fortified dessert wines are out. In retrospect though, I should have tried other dessert wines that are less hardcore than port, such as a nice cream sherry, or a Sauternes. Supposedly everyone likes ice wine (but props to you if you can afford it).
5. Of course, we all know that people generally start with white wines before discovering they enjoy reds too. I’ve had good luck with white zinfandels and some white wine blends. Chardonnays tended to be hit-and-miss, while sauvignon blanc didn’t seem to work well at all. Roses tended to be very accessible. For the first red wines, try fruit-filled table wines, such as a Portuguese tinto, or perhaps an easy pinot noir. Try to stay away from darker, fuller red wines (that first taste can be put off a first-time reds drinker for years), especially cabernets, shirazes, or gawd forbid, something like a Côte du Rhône.
6. Despite what happens, keep on trying! Mustn’t let anyone, much less a good friend, miss out on the wonderful and delicious world that is wine.