I still remember way-back when I just started drinking wine. The selection was basic: “Shall I have the red or white stuff?”. It was that simple and yes, I’m sure you still remember those reckless days as well. Those were the days, right? The days when we knew nothing except the colour and the alcohol level. The days when I could still call myself a wine drinker, but those days are long gone my friend.

Over the years my consumption level has increased and with every sip, I was slowly but surely assimilated into the Wine Borg, known by the common wine drinker as the Wine Snob Society.

I mused over this a while back and these days I made peace with it. When drinking a lot of wine, as with anything you do a lot of, one tend to try and improve on the last attempt. To enjoy your last sip more then the one before that, one should always be on the look-out for ways to improve the experience. The process to become a wine snob is thus quite a natural one, and if you drink a lot of wine, it is unavoidable.

So for Mr. Average Wine Joe who has an ambition to enter Snobville, let me quickly sketch a road-map for you. To start, you will have to take more serious note of things like wine varietals, years produce, origin and last but definitely not least, different producers/wine makers. We can categorize all these under level 1, and it will take some time to master these skills (please see Buffaloes, brain cells and wine to improve your uptake).

Before you know it you will be swirling and sniffing your way through level 2, like some kind of glue addict.  To educate the taste buds, is a long and strenuous process of heavy tasting. Please note: Level 2 will require a strong and healthy liver.

After this you will find yourself at level 3: The time when you start experimenting … with wine accessories. Along the road you will bump bottles with all sorts of gadgets, all with the promise to squeeze another micro flavour out of the wine (see Daily Wine Toy ). These gadgets will be weird and ridiculous at first, but as you spend more time with a V3 Decanter and the likes, the more you will love them and understand them, until one day, you will look around and realize you are in the middle of Wine Snobville.

This should be a day of revelation and celebration. In Wine Snobville we will not drink kak wine, but instead appreciate every awesome drop of the wonderful nectar, we call quality wine.

Cheers