When the One You Love Doesn’t Love Wine

Funny but true.

On our first date, husband brought me an expensive fancy bottle of Kluge wine (this winery doesn’t exist and is re-named after the unmentionable). So of course, at that time in 2004 being a grocery store wine drinker, I just assumed that future husband knows a lot about and really loves wine.

This illusion continued for two years, where on his birthday when he got laid off I took him on a work trip to California and booked two nights at a bed and breakfast in Napa, planning to visit a number of wineries.  We do this, I have an amazing time, and he lets me know, “I’m glad you had fun, but I really don’t like wine that much (oh and by the way, you rented a jaguar instead of a convertible mustang!).”

Heartbroken.  At this point we have a mortgage together, are starting to talk about kids, (marriage wasn’t legal yet, so that wasn’t part of the conversation), and he doesn’t like wine, and my wine exploration is going wild.

Fast forward a few years.  He has come along on a ton of winery visits with me (and at one point he even took clients to one of the wineries and they loved it!), humored my wine obsession and exploration, and even bought me a few really tasty bottles.

I think he understands and is amused by my wine obsession, which has only become mildly inconvenient given the number of wine bottles in the dining room, and the almost weekly trips to various wineries to check out and report on my impressions of the Virginia wine scene.  Like a good spouse should, he faithfully reads my blog posts (which he summarizes as…. you drank this and this, liked this one, didn’t like this one….).

But it is hard to not have him as my faithful companion on every journey, and that is why I’m quite grateful for Wine Friend 1, Wine Friend 2, Co-Pilot, and Dad as my frequent fliers.  Maybe in 3 years when he is over 21, Beloved Son will join the cast and crew of the wine blog, but I’m not holding my breath, and frankly, he doesn’t even care for the smell of most of the wines.  Husband does come along for some of the journeys, joining for stops at Arterra, Two Twisted Posts, Bozzo, and Stone Tower.  But more often than not he lets me be, orders himself a vodka tonic at dinner now and then, and watches.  He’s a good sport and takes a sip of some of my evening wines, and when he doesn’t grimace, he may actually like it.

According to him, the good wines I’ve brought to him are Arterra’s Malbec, RdV’s Rendezvous, and interestingly, La Grange’s Rose last summer.  And those are all outstanding ones I can live with.  As much as I want him to open up to all the great stuff I’m finding/exploring, part of a good marriage is accepting that he has different interests, and sharing where those intersect.  I share good wine with him sometimes, and sometimes he even likes it, and other times I just stick to it with my wine friends.

Are you married to one of the uninitiated? How do you make that work?