The Washington Post recently postulated that there are three kinds of wine drinkers: Casual drinkers, Explorers and Aficionados.  The Casual drinker likes wine, but for them it is just a beverage.  Explorers are looking for obscure and undervalued wines.  Aficionados demand the best.  Personally, I think they left out a type: the Enthusiast…who is kind of a hybrid of an explorer and and aficionado.

I am a self described Enthusiast.  Are you?  We know more about wine than the casual drinkers, but we don’t know everything.  We are still learning.  Our palettes are more discriminating than they used to be, but could still improve.  We’re happy to continue the “rigorous training” involved in improving our palettes.  We love exploring the world of wine, but do have our own favorite wines or regions.  And, if the region is near enough, going there, seeing the grapes in the vineyards, meeting the wine makers and tasting the wines is about as good as life gets for us, except perhaps sharing our finds with our appreciative friends and family.

What kind of a wine drinker are you?