Moving Outside Your W.C.Z. (Wine Comfort Zone)

You're probably wondering about my qualifications to write this blog. So here's all I can say about my credentials – such as they are. After a trip to the California wine country in 1981, I was asked to write a wine column for the Charleston Daily Mail. I wrote that weekly column until 1989 and also did a wine commentary gig on West Virginia Public Radio during that same time period.

The commentary, which lasted only a few months and was produced by Mountain Stage's Andy Ridenour, was cancelled when one person wrote to say that Public Radio should not be advocating the use of alcoholic beverages. That was it – one person. Who says a single voice can't make a difference?

Since 1989, I have written a monthly wine column for a weekly West Virginia business publication. I've also conducted hundreds of wine tastings, MC'd countless wine dinners and have traveled fairly extensively to some of the world's most famous wine regions. But before you get too overly impressed with my wine-stained resume, keep in mind that I am also a home wine maker. In other words, I have a great tolerance for mediocre wine. I actually think my wine, which I've been making from California grapes since 1977, is pretty good. If that's not enough to make you stop reading right now, you must really be desperate for wine information.

Okay, so here's what we're going to do: I'm going to write about wine and sometimes food, and hope that you will occasionally respond with your own feelings about the information I impart. Let me say up front that I don't expect you to like every wine I recommend. Wouldn't that be boring?

However, I do taste a pretty substantial number of wines in the course of a year. And I'll bet (unless you're as wine-obsessed as I am) that I might get you to try something other than what you drink regularly. I might even be able to get you to move outside your wine-comfort zone. If so, then I will have succeeded.

-- By John Brown