We are Brian and Jean, and there’s no doubt about it – we enjoy wine.  In fact, many of our friends consider us “wine snobs” – we find this funny because most of the wines we like are under $20.

Truth be told, we weren’t always this way.  Shortly after getting married, almost 30 years ago, we discovered sweet German white wines and thought we had died and gone to heaven.  Spatlese, Auslese and even Kabinett graced our table.  We considered ourselves quite the lovers of wine and eventually grew into the most basic of training wines………white zinfandel.  Clearly an oxymoron.

As we aged, our taste in wine has aged as well.  We worked our way through Cello Lambrusco, Merlot, blends, Shiraz and other “bargain” varietals. Yes, we’ve even thought Yellow Tail was pretty good at one point.  Have to laugh that one friend tried to convince us that Yellow Tail Reserve was about as good as it gets (thank you Jimmy P.).  Given our living and travel arrangements, we delved into local vineyard offerings in Ontario, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas.  In Kerrville, we met folks who enjoyed wine as much, if not more, than we did.  Many tastings and travels with Sue S., Sandy, Marianne, Sue C., Rhonda, Ken, Liz and Pat expanded our horizons.  Patrick at Grape Juice and Peter from The Main were also great educators.

However, it was a trip to Paso Robles in 2007 that really turned us on to what we like to call “the good stuff”.  From robust Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Naked Chardonnay, exceptional blends, to Syrah, Petite Syrah (que’ syrah, syrah – sorry, Jean got carried away for a second) and so many others, made us believers that there is an incredible amount of wonderful, affordable wine out there.

So, why a blog you may ask.  While watching “Julie and Julia” for the umpteenth time, we looked at each other and said “we should do something like that.”  So here we are making a challenge to ourselves to blog about something we love . . . wine.  We decided to take on the task of blogging every day about a different wine for 365 days.  Of course the catch is that we have to open and taste daily – well as they say, it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.  So, we offer ourselves up to the challenge knowing we have a wide circle of support should we fall short on any given day.  The plan is to begin on September 1st.  Lining up guest bloggers – let us know if you want to play.