Sometimes Great Love Is An Acquired Taste Like Fine Wine

In my last post, 2007 H3 Merlot & 2006 Tikal Patriota, I ended with “I forgot to tell the story of how great love is an acquired taste like fine wine!” And this is going to be that post.

While I was in Seattle spending time getting to know the entire Pransky staff, each night I was invited to have dinner and drinks with a different person or their family. It was great fun for me, never a dull moment and never were they short visits. What would start out as “Drop by for an hour to visit,” would inevitably turn into four or five hours  at which point we wondered where the time had gone! Our conversations always seemed to be fun, philosophical and inspiring!

One particular night I met Keith at Nell Thorns for wine and their amazing Beach Bowl Soup–A big bowl of fresh Mussels, Clams, Prawns and Fin Fish poached in a Herb & Fennel Seed-scented Tomato Broth for $24.00! Can you believe that was the second time in my life I’d ever had mussels and clams! The first time was when Diken’s wife made them the night before and I just went for it and ended up liking them! So Keith is one of the consultants at Pransky & Associates and I really like him. We met at 5pm and the next time I looked up at the clock it was 9pm! We had a very intriguing conversation about love and relationships.

I don’t remember most of that conversation but what stands out most in my mind is when he said that true love is very similar to drinking fine wine. I remember when I first started drinking wine a few years back, I would only drink the cheap sweet Rieslings and champagne. I couldn’t stomach any of the heavier whites and certainly not any of the dryer whites (the dryer the wine the less residual sugar it has) and like my disdain for, oysters, mussels, clams and sushi, red wine was definitely out of the question (I still haven’t bitten the bullet on oysters or sushi) because I had not acquired a palate for any of the finer wines.

It wasn’t until I met Sean, the wine guy, that all that changed for me. I sold mortgages and real estate above his wine shop and we became fast friends. I just loved him. He was over the top funny, charismatic and I learned a lot about business from him. I used to spend a lot of time in there and he was always trying to get me to think outside the box and explore wine. I was stubborn and believed the best wine was cheap Rieslings. I laugh now. I don’t know when it happened or exactly how it happened but one day I started liking reds. I can’t even tell you which red it was, but I never looked back. I am sure at first it was the more fruity, young reds filled with lot’s of residual sugar and not very complex but hey, I was finally drinking red! It took me almost two years to “acquire” a taste for red wine and from their it only went up. To this day I am actually allergic to champagne and any wine that has a lot of residual sugar. My body just can’t process all of the sugar and therefore it tastes really awful to me.

Great love and great relationships are very similar in that a lot of the times we have to “acquire” a taste for the right person. Let’s face it, many of us don’t know what love is. We have a lot of ideas fed to us by the media, movies, fantasy books and every type of relationship self-help book imaginable but so many still don’t know what it is like to have love reciprocated in deep meaningful ways. Keith was sharing his own personal story that really brought to life how what we think we want may be in fact not all that right for us and if we are open to the idea, have patience that many times finding the right person who really gets us and loves us is truly an acquired taste but once you get the taste you will never look back.

Think about this for second. How many things in your life have you sworn off, “I will never drink red wine!” or “I will never eat Indian!” or “I will never like Europe!” Whatever your “never” is, yet here you are today doing the very think you swore you’d never do! What does that say to you? I think it is evidence to the fact how easy it is for human beings to change their mind if they remain open to being influenced and touched and let go of pre-existing ideas, thoughts and beliefs.

So for me the lesson is that more often than not the right love doesn’t come in the packaging we’ve made up in our head but rather in packaging we wouldn’t otherwise pay attention to. There is a difference between getting what you think you want and getting something even better. More often than not we aren’t ready or open to the better. Often our own conditioning, upbringing and limitations keep us from experiencing and being open to something deeper, meaningful and lasting. True love, many times, is an “acquired” taste and if you are patient, open and willing to get out of your way you will find it when you least expect it in a place you would have never thought.

So get out there and start expanding your wine palate, explore every wine you come across and be open to the possibilities. You may just surprise yourself! At the very least you will have a lot of fun, meet new people and definitely discover that you like far more wines than you could have imagined! Who knows where the right love of your life is. Maybe they’ve been in right in front of you forever and you just never paid attention! Open your palate and you will open your eyes to other things! Just being aware that you can change your mind and have the potential to be open is pointing yourself in the right direction!

I love what Tori Amos said in her recent interview with Malibu Magazine:

Who is your favorite contemporary artist and why?
Probably Cindy Sherman, because she is able to allow herself to transform into many different women. Whether they are different sides of herself or whether she is able to channel these women is not for me to answer, but it inspires me as a woman to explore my different sides and to not get stuck in an image that I may have of myself that could be very limiting. (Italicized for emphasis)

Next Post – Kunde Family Estate 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon