About a year ago now, I decided to start the Cheeky Vino. I was writing a food blog and started writing about wine. I realised quite quickly that wine was actually what I loved writing about. So I decided to chase this little spark and turn it into what you see as the Cheeky Vino today!
One year on, I am so amazed by how far The Cheeky Vino has come. I’ve learnt so much, and this week I am now celebrating 10,000 followers on Instagram! It is something I set out to achieve this year, but it was a goal I never thought I would reach. I am so humbled and honoured by the support of the amazing wine community on Instagram that has made this possible. It’s been so incredible connecting with the community and sharing my love of wine with the world.
I started The Cheeky Vino because I realised that there wasn’t enough out there for people who just love wine. Wine has such stuffiness about it, it can feel so inaccessible. But when you get down to it, learning about wine is really enjoyable, rewarding and not as hard as it is made out to be. So I set out to help others learn about wine, and make it more accessible for everyone. That’s my mission and always has been!
So to celebrate this momentous occasion which I am still so excited about, I thought I would share some of my favourite things I’ve learnt about since starting The Cheeky Vino. I figured, why not make it 10 because it matches the celebration? Whether you are a new reader or been with it from the start, I hope this post puts a smile on your dial!
1. Quaff is actually a wine term…
When I was first seriously learning about wine, I started seeing this word pop up and I really had no idea what it meant. The term Quaffable is used a lot when it comes to wine, but I have to admit I had no idea what it meant. So I started doing some research and found out.
Quaffable is a term used to describe a bottle of wine that is easy drinking, and usually cheap. These wines are easy-going, don’t need much thought, and are good for drinking now. You know, those wines you’ll take to a BBQ with friends, or sip on when your midway through a Netflix binge and eating takeout.
What I find hilarious about this term is that it is a fancy wine term that no one really understands, being used to describe wines that wine snobs won’t normally drink. Terms like these make everyday drinkers feel like they can’t understand wine. But really, this wine term is used for the wines we love to drink! I mean you’re not always going to want to pay big dollars for a bottle. What you need sometimes is a bottle of decent wine that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg!
2. Biodynamic, Organic and Natural wines are all so very different
When I started on my journey of wine blog learnings, I have to admit I hadn’t tried many biodynamic, organic or natural wines. Especially natural wines, as they’ve only really taken off in the past year. I really didn’t understand the difference between these types of wines, or what it all meant.
Since starting the blog, I’ve learnt so much more about this huge industry, and what differentiates these wines from your everyday wines. I’m definitely not going to go full biodynamic in my drinking, but it has taught me to consider things such as pesticides and added sulphites in my wine. They can really make a difference to the taste, and your hangover!
If you want to learn the difference between these types of wines, you can read my full article here.
3. The glass does actually make a difference, as much as I loved drinking Pinot out of an espresso cup
One of my favourite experiments that I’ve done for the good of wine blog learnings so far has been testing out the difference between glasses. I managed to rope one of my friends into filming a video where we tried out a bottle of Pinot Noir in many different glasses. We didn’t stop at wine glasses either. Espresso cups, mugs, sake cups, champagne glasses…it was all fair game.
I had so much fun filming this video. It was really interesting trying the same wine in different glasses. I was so surprised by the difference it made! I was also surprised how drinking out of cups and mugs wasn’t so bad.
This exercise really taught me how much of a difference the wine glass makes to drinking wine. I thought it was a clever marketing ploy, but I think they are on to something! That, or I just love drinking out of massive wine glasses!
Check out the video here.
4. Prosecco may go the same way as Champagne
This might seem like an obvious one to come of you, but it came as a surprise to me. I am also shocked I didn’t know this because I am so obsessed with Prosecco. With its affordable price point and dry taste, it is my go-to for everyday Sparkling. However, when I was learning about Prosecco for an article, I learnt about the current fight to protect the Prosecco name.
Prosecco comes from the Veneto region of Italy and is made using the Glera grape. However, there is no rule stopping any other region making wine and labelling it Prosecco around the globe. As a result, there are many Australian companies producing Prosecco that isn’t from Italy. Unlike Champagne, there is no protection for the Prosecco name.
So the Italian Government are currently fighting this and trying to make it so Prosecco can only come from a specific region. This change could really shake the Australian wine industry! But this wine blog learning has taught me to think before I buy and look for Prosecco that is from the right region where I can. Unless it is a great Australian Prosecco because there are so many out there!
5. Sometimes it can be hard to pick the cask wine in a blind tasting
One of the best things I did this year was to host a blind wine tasting night. I got a bunch of friends together, got them all to bring a bottle of wine, and we blind-tasted all of them. They all had to guess which bottle they were drinking, the variety and region, as well as give it a rating.
To spice things up, I also threw in some curveballs: a cask wine and a non-alcoholic wine. I told them about the cask wine, but not the non-alcoholic, and asked them to pick out the cask wine from the bunch.
Well, it turned out that picking the cask wine is harder than it looks because no one was able to pick it! It goes to show that when you don’t have a wine label, sometimes you can’t tell the difference! My partner loved the cask wine so much he was drinking it for weeks after!
If you want to host your own blind wine tasting, check out my guide.
6. No one can agree on what the noble grapes are…and it doesn’t mean they are royal
A few weeks ago I researched the term noble grapes to write an article. I thought it would be pretty straight forward, but I was oh so wrong! It turns out that noble grapes are actually really confusing, and no one can agree on which wines should be deemed ‘noble’.
Noble grapes are defined as those wines that are ‘international and recognisable’. However, some only name 6 or 7 as noble, being the wines that originally came from France. Some, however, define more wines in this category, going up to 18. This makes it very confusing for the everyday wine drinker!
However many wines you want to define as noble, the moral of the story is that these wines are a great place to start tasting wine. You can work your way through the list, and start working out what wines you love!
7. Taste and flavour are actually different things when it comes to wine
One of the confusing things, when you start learning about wine, is the different terms used to describe it. It gets confusing, especially when you don’t really smell wet grass or leather in your wine! One of the most confusing things to get your head around is that taste and flavour are different things.
I can hear you asking – what do you mean? How are they different? Well, taste in wine comes from your mouth and is the second thing you should experience when you drink wine. Flavour is something that comes from a combination of tasting the wine and smelling it before you taste it. You’ll get different profiles from each, and when you bring taste and aroma together, you’ll get the flavour!
It’s good to get this right in your head so you can understand the difference when you’re reading tasting notes. Once you know what they mean, it makes it so much easier to understand!
8. Organising your wine cellar is actually really worth doing
A few months ago now, I decided to organise our wine cellar. We had so many bottles we had collected over the years, and I had no idea what they were worth or when we should drink them. So I decided to put a bit of a system in place so we could easily work out which wines we could drink, and what we should wait on for a little longer.
It took a long time to get our whole wine cellar sorted, but it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. Not only did it make me feel organised, but we even found some wines we’d been hoarding that we had an excuse to drink! Now that’s a rewarding activity!
If you want to learn more about how I organised our wine cellar, check out my detailed post.
9. Acidity can actually be a good thing in wine
On first glance, having acidity in wine sounds like a terrible thing. The word acidity conjures up thoughts of lemons, citrus and sour flavours. Not something you’d normally want in wine right?
Well, acidity in wine is actually really important and is a big wine blog learning for me. Acidity is actually super important in wine, as without it, the wine’s flavours would be dull and boring. You need a good balance of acidity to make the wine sing and the flavours shine.
To learn more about acidity, check out this post.
10. I still don’t have a favourite variety
The last one is an overall observation that I realised a few weekends ago. I was walking on the beach with my dad, and he asked me what I thought would be a simple question for me by now: What is your favourite wine variety? I realised at that moment, as I struggled to answer, that I still didn’t have one. Instead, I gave a super roundabout answer that ended up encompassing pretty much every wine known to man “Well I love Mediterranean wines, and Pinot, and I love a good heavy red with food, but sometimes in summer all I want is white, and that can include a good Chardonnay. And then there’s Rosé – don’t even get me started!”
I thought through a year of learning and drinking about wine I might have decided on which wines I liked and didn’t like. I think if anything the opposite has happened. This year has opened my eyes to a whole new world of wine, and rather than closing myself off to varieties, I’ve welcomed trying everything in with open arms.
I mean don’t get me wrong, there are definitely wines I haven’t enjoyed. But nothing has stood out enough that I have banned that wine from my drinking list. Really it’s all fair game at this point, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon!
The final word on my year of wine blog learnings
So there you have my top 10 favourite learnings from the past year. I cannot wait to see what more I can learn and experience on this incredible wine journey. I really hope you’ve enjoyed learning along with me, and I hope I can share even more learnings with you in the year to come.
Thank you all for your support. Without you, I probably would have given up on this as a pipe dream. But to know I am part of a growing wine community, and hearing that you are enjoying my content, it makes me want to keep going. I am loving every second of this wild Cheeky Vino journey, and I cannot wait for what’s in store!