For me, wine has been an acquired taste. For that matter, all alcohol has been something that I had to ease my tastebuds into. With beer and wine, I started off with the wimpy stuff. We're talking watery Bud Light and super sweet dessert wines. I'm sure any brewer or wine sommelier would tell me I went about it all wrong. I bet they would have had me start out with the best each had to offer like a sturdy chocolatey porter or a finely aged pinot noir.
Those flavors, while I love them now, would have been way too much for my taste buds to handle. Instead I started out slow. And now I'm a big fan of microbrews and most wines. I'm still inching my way in the wine department, though. While I've never met a white wine I didn't like, the reds are another story. A friend recently convinced me to try Shiraz. I've also given Pinot Noir a whirl. My biggest quibble with reds is that way they stick in the throat. Dry. That's what I don't like. The heat too. I know they're made to be consumed at room temperature. But, I like the way a cool white wine is refreshing as it slips down the throat.
But, that's just me. Everyone at the Great Grapes of Iowa Wine Festival at Kirkwood Community College Saturday had their opinion too. Some like the reds. Some liked the whites. That's the beautiful thing about wine. There's sure to be one for everyone, with literally thousands upon thousands of varieties and vineyards in the world.
Iowa has its fair share too. As The Gazette's Food and Fitness Editor Anne Kapler wrote in her column last week, Iowa's wine production is on the rise. The state boasts more than 67 licensed native wineries. That’s up from just 13 six years ago. Annual wine production in Iowa has increased from 51,500 gallons in June 2002 to 256,035 gallons in June 2007.
Now that's a lot of wine. And it's all right here in Iowa. So get out and take a sip.