treating them nicely

It's the weird wines that are interesting. The unpredictable ones, the unfamiliar. I think we learn more from a single bottle of the esoteric than 10 cases of some mainstream junk. A lot of what we choose to buy and drink - a lot of it is because we're looking for something we know, something we're comfortable with. There's nothing wrong with that approach, but it does tend to get boring. Winos, above all, want excitement, romance, and mystery in their wines.

So we turn once again to France to teach us something new about wine. To the Jura!!! The savagnin grape, done two ways: as a straight table wine, and as a grand vin jaune. My first time tasting wines out of this mountain region; vin jaune is one of those wines you read about but never seem to get the chance to taste. So into the decanter for a few hours, before decanting back into the bottle for a quick chill.

Our personal preference is completely irrelevant - at least for the true winos. Building experience, building context around all these tiny, obscure wine regions of the old world . . . that's the whole point. Because it's all to answer a simple question: why do we drink wine?

DF