The real lady behind The Wine•ing Woman is Amanda Maynard (me, so I’m not going to keep talking in the 3rd person). I’m 25 and enjoying my first job in the wine and internet business as well as writing this blog.

I got into wine pretty much as soon as I could legally drink it. I had a number of friends who were older than me and were drinking wine on a regular basis, so I joined in. The first wine I ever had was a Merlot (still my favorite red grape).

As a 21 year old, I started drinking wine when I’d go out and wine when I stayed in. The more I drank it, the more I thought that the stuff was really interesting to me and I started to learn about it. In the process of learning, I figured out that I knew about 0.01% about wine. I needed to learn more. That’s when I happened into a liquor store one day and asked the nice lady working there if there was a good class/certification to take/get and she said WSET. I looked into it and quickly signed up for the Intermediate class.

That class helped me in a number of ways but the simplest and most practical part was how to taste wine. Before that class, I didn’t have “proper technique” for tasting and the technique isn’t all crap. You breathe in air of a reason: it helps expose all of the flavors. The class also challenged me to really think about the wine and the flavors at a depth and intensity that I hadn’t before. It was a big stepping stone towards cementing this passion firmly in my life.

From there, I’ve begun working in the industry and let me tell you, I’m learning a ton. Whenever I come across something I don’t know, it’s an opportunity to look it up and learn about it. I’m being exposed to more things that I don’t know than ever before, and the discovery process is fantastic. Even if I learn one thing per day, it’s solid steps toward the goal of knowing what I’m talking about (at least partially).

I’ll never be done learning about wine. I know that. It’s an endless search, but that’s what makes it really interesting to me. That’s kind of the point of this blog. I’m writing about what I’m learning and experiencing in wine and life and I’m sharing it with you lovely people. Most of what I write is wine related, but sometimes I will stray (usually for the purpose of you getting to know me better).

That’s the short story. I hope you listen (read) and chime in. This whole thing works better when I’m not just writing stuff that disappears into the ether. Plus, I love making good wine friends. It’s pretty awesome.