The Initial Pour-ologue
Giving this writing thing another ol' college try.
A few (many) moons ago, I had a little food blog called Four Tines and a Napkin, back when “blogs” were at their peak popularity. It was a needed escape from my “bean counter by day” persona, detailing the cool places I’d visit after work and documenting all the delicious things I’d eat and drink.
While I look back fondly on those moments, I am quick to remember why I had abruptly stopped five years later during 2015. It was challenging to keep up with the content — the backlog of photos, menu descriptions, and reviews became so overwhelming that it became more of a chore than the activity I would look forward to doing after a toiling day at work.
Not long after this (permanent) hiatus, I went hard on posting snippets on Instagram, a platform which allowed me to document and share experiences with friends without the pressure of formality. Instagram’s “carousel” post format further tapped into my rediscovered joy via “microblogging” as @four_tines.
Fast forward four years later — after getting engaged, undergoing major spinal surgery, adopting a second cat, turning 30, getting my first tattoo, tying the knot, and becoming obsessed with Negronis (#WhenInDoubtNegroni) — to when I would meet people who would eventually become the “OG-est” of ‘Grand Crus’: upon attending a new “wine club” meetup at a local wine shop in February 2019, I was seated near some folks with whom I instantly connected over a shared enthusiasm for wine. Needless to say, we quickly became the noisy kids in the back who were shushed numerous times, inspiring us to start a wine club of our very own a couple weeks later.
RogueVines became our version of a book club. We started meeting every month or so, when each person would each bring a bottle to share, usually adhering to a theme. Driven by many insecurities about picking a great (read: right) bottle for wine club, the undeniable “Two Bottle” Stef alter ego was born. I would always have a second bottle, just in case, for fear of cork taint, poor storage, or just plain not good. I feel fortunate that the group obliged my anxieties, letting me be me. I also knew I had found my people, the immediate telltale sign being that they were as obsessed with maps as I had been. As we built our collective knowledge in all things vino, charting them through our beloved wine maps, we too were becoming closer friends, inside jokes and all.
Shortly after celebrating our group’s first anniversary, the pandemic hit, and so disappeared our monthly meetings. With looming uncertainty spent indoors at home as well as limited interactions outside our respective bubbles, there remained a void craving that familiar camaraderie. Five months later — thankfully — someone broached the idea of convening again, just al fresco. Let me tell you how committed (read: totally nuts) we were to this — no rainstorms, blizzards, polar vortexes, heat waves, nor high speed winds could stop this resilient crew from meeting on a weekly basis. We sustained this momentum of gusto for fourteen-ish months, at which time small indoor gatherings could be routine again, without the holding of worried breaths.
It was during those precious months al fresco when my pandemic project truly became wine. I had been a star student consistently in my youth, fully committed to studying hard and getting the grades, but to my dismay, I was pretty terrible with standardized tests — they always managed to psych me out, and it was heartbreaking how my scores never correlated with how much I had studied. I thought of the 2012 SOMM documentary and looked into similar courses and certifications, wondering if wine could somehow be my redemption in becoming a better test taker. Boy, did that curiosity (plus weeks of collective tasting with RogueVines) end up paying off: I studied for and took the WSET exams for Levels 1 (March 2021), 2 (September 2021), and 3 (August 2022), passing all with distinction. How much wine did I taste during those weeks? The limit did not exist. Were there endless pages of notes, mountains of flashcards, and piles of maps involved? Very much so. But did I relish every minute of the stress from studying? Absolutely.
Right after New Year's Day in 2021, I made my first official Instagram post as @TwoBottleStef, my wine-imbibing analog. I had used this as a visual diary of bottles personally purchased and opened since that inaugural post, initially only including composition and vinification of the wines, then perhaps a “fun fact” or two. Unlike the awful dread I had with the old food blog, my enthusiasm only for this grew, as each subsequent post continued my wine education, both formally and informally. My confidence changed from timid and reluctant to self-assured and composed. A couple years later, at the encouragement from my fellow RogueVines crew, I even felt comfortable adding my own personal tasting thoughts to these entries. More recently, I supplemented some helpful “file-away-as” categories, too, like “Quintessential QPR” and “Scoville Sidekick” as quick recommendation fodder.
After much thought, I now want a place, separate from that bottle diary, where I can write more about wine and my related experiences. So here I find myself, with this prologue, letting my thoughts breath some air (decant, if you will) outside the corners of my mind. As I embark on a wee (new) side hustle featuring wine tastings and consulting on the like, I hope to highlight those gigs here as well as other wine-centric things worth sharing.
Welcome to The Decanterbury Tales — cheers!