Happy Friday,

Too many people make the same mistake when learning about wine:

Mistake: Trying to learn something about everything.

This is the completely wrong approach.

Solution: When you start, you should learn everything about something.

Narrowing your focus to one aspect of the wine world does three things:

1. Gives You More satisfaction
2. Eliminates Your Distractions
3. Creates a Foundation When Your Tastes Change

When you think about your wine strengths and weaknesses, you have to double down on your strengths to get better and more confident about wine.

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Gives You More Satisfaction

I’ve said from the very beginning of this newsletter, drink what you love.

So the only thing better than drinking what you love is drinking MORE of what you love.

Let’s say you love Pinot Noir. Start drinking Pinot Noir from all over the world. Take notes on the ones. Identify trends among the wines you like the most like:

• Price
• Region
• Producer
• Style, Aromas, Flavors

Keep honing in on the thing you love, and you’re going to have a great time and learn a ton!

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Eliminates Your Distractions

When you choose one thing that you love about wine, you don’t have to worry about everything else.

Let’s stick with the Pinot Noir example from above. You’ve eliminated all other grapes from the equation. This means:

• You’re not chasing scores from top-rated Cabernet Sauvignons
• You can can safely ignore sales on Chardonnay
• The mention of Malbec, Merlot and Mourvèdre won’t move you off course.

You don’t have to refuse those drinks, but with the wine you love as your guide, you can better your experience anywhere.

For example at a restaurant/retailer, you can ask for recommendations strictly around Pinot Noir or something that might be similar.

This focuses the scope for those helping you with wine at the beginning too.

Hooray, wins for everyone.

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Creates a Foundation When Your Tastes Change

If you love Pinot Noir today, and you drink it for a couple months or years, you’re going to grow tired of it.

Your tastes are going to change.

Maybe along the way you discover you like Cabernet Franc. And there lies your next journey.

Or perhaps you get fascinated with Burgundy. Welcome to a rabbit hole that can last a lifetime.

When you chase down your initial wine instincts relentlessly, you will build skills that make learning more about the wine world easier.

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Forget being the Michael Jordan of wine, you want to be the Michael Scott of wine.

Double down on the wines you love, and you’ll at least double your odds of being successful with wine learning.

You will:

1. Be satisfied by enjoying the wine you love
2. Avoid distractions of the expansive wine world
3. Create a foundation for future wine learning as your tastes evolve.

In conclusion, ditch your weakness for your strengths.

Be the Michael Scott of wines:Michael Scott: Why don’t I tell you what my greatest weaknesses are?
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I work too hard, I care too much and sometimes I can be too invested in my job.​
​David Wallace: Okay. And your strengths?
​Michael Scott: Well, my weaknesses are actually strengths.

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This Week’s Free-Run Juice

*free-run juice is a wine term for the grape juice that comes from their own weight prior to pressing. These are weekly tidbits that came out from my own wine reading.

Okay…Maybe Don’t Be The Michael Scott Of Wine

You have to appreciate Michael’s confidence when it comes to wine. His colors were correct, but his descriptions were a bit off.

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Wine Makers Continue To Adjust In A Rapidly Changing World

The innovation in the wine industry is sadly underrepresented.

There is artistry in what goes into the bottle, obviously. But there is tireless work in the vineyards and in laboratories.

This article is a great read on the lengths the wine industry is going to work with mother nature despite our poor treatment of her.

(Thank you for sharing, Tom).