Wine Riot took place at the John J. Moakley Courthouse. Vendors were set up on two floors. Thanks to Anulfo for the great pictures!
The definition of riot is “a wild or turbulent disturbance created by a large number of people” and “unrestrained merrymaking; revelry.” My favorite definition is simply “debauchery.” On Saturday I attended Wine Riot. Not surprisingly, there was a large number of people participating in revelry and debauchery. The organizers of Wine Riot touted it as a wine tasting for the unpretentious drinker in search of affordable wine. I still had my suspicions. Would I really feel comfortable in a room full of wine experts? Would they really not judge me for lacking the vocabulary of wine snobs?
The first booth I approached answered my concerns. I went to the Hellas Import Limited booth and asked the guy to tell me about the 2004 Cambas Winery Nemea Reserve. He responded, ‘dry.’ He didn’t tell me about the grapes. He didn’t tell me about the soil or the climate. He just said ‘dry.’ It actually said ‘dry’ on the bottle so he wasn’t giving me new information. At first I was a little taken aback, a little disappointed. I must admit, even though I detest the snobbery associated with wine, I like learning about it. Was this ‘unpretentious’ wine tasting actually going to be unpretentious?
Even though my first experience was casual and welcoming, my insecure self still needed to learn something. So I attended one of the Crash Courses about inexpensive French wines. Here I took notes feverishly and wrote down every word spoken by the gray haired man with British twang. But still, the information presented was more about the brand, the history of the winery, the name’s origination. When we tasted the wine, we were asked one question: ‘do you like it?’
Wines from my first crash course on tasty and inexpensive French wines
This theme, to relay information about the brand, the name, etc. and encourage attendees to rely on our own authority continued throughout the evening. One vendor discussed the winery owner’s background as a single mom in California. Every booth was most interested in what I tasted, in whether I liked it, not in telling me what notes I should be tasting. Plus, these wines were affordable. One brand, Yellow+Blue Wines, offers organic wines in eco-friendly packaging for only $10.99. The Torrontes was amazing – it tasted clean, fresh. Any lingering disappointment from not learning viticulture and viniculture soon dissipated. By fostering a new foundation of authority, my own taste buds, this wine tasting encouraged me to just taste and enjoy.
This proved to be a good thing because I wouldn’t have learned much past 8 o’clock anyway. That was when I attended another Crash Course and soon realized I stopped making intelligent notes on the wine. I got a little louder and asked obnoxious questions, interrupting the Downtown Wine and Spirits wine guru, Jeff. Instead of writing things like ‘hint of cherry’ or ‘honeysuckle on the nose’ (like I was for the first two hours of Wine Riot), I scribbled shapes and squiggles that resembled cavemen etchings. My ability to describe what I was tasting deteriorated to ‘fucking amazing.’ I followed the vendors’ directions – I didn’t worry about saying the ‘right’ things. I tasted and enjoyed, perhaps to excess.
I returned to see Jeff for a third crash course at 9pm. Everything that happened in that fourth hour seemed to fall into a black hole. I quit looking for the wines in my booklet. I gave up on the nonsensical scribbles. I talked and talked to the vendors, not retaining a word of what they said. I was a bit wild, a tad turbulent, and completely unrestrained in my merrymaking. Basically, I was riotous. But then again, I think that was the point.
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