By Martha McBride
Wine education is a passion! In fact, that passion is the driving force behind the small-but-growing businesses of many WineShop At Home consultants. Through their tastings, independent consultants introduce guests to new tastes, new concepts, and the modern Napa wine lifestyle.
Whether placing your order at an in-home wine tasting, meeting up for a glass of wine and “consultation” with your favorite IWC, or popping into the local wine store for a sampling opportunity, the Wine Rule of Three is a good one to keep in mind when you’re shopping for wine. Learn it, live it, love it!
When you find a wine you enjoy and want to purchase, think in terms of three bottles or more. The reasoning behind it is quite simple and amusing, but you’ll find it to be true.
If you like a wine and purchase one bottle, you’ll horde it. If the wine is somehow exclusive, expensive, or elusive, you’re even more likely to horde it. The more you love it, the less likely that single bottle will be opened any time soon. It’s simply human nature.
When you purchase two bottles, you may drink one, but you’re less likely to share it with others, and you’ll quickly be down to that single, treasured bottle again. No bottle of wine deserves to be loved only in theory, as it lies on its side in your wine rack, with no hope of being part of a celebration.
But…ahhh…when you purchase three bottles of a new favorite, you will find that you’ll easily find occasion to drink a bottle, will be more likely to share a bottle with a good friend or two, and will still have one bottle left to horde as long as you’d like.
The best wines are wines that you enjoy with the important people in your life. When the winemaker bottles the wine, it is not his hope that it will be cellared, saved, and squirreled away far from the joys of life. It is his hope that this wine that he has crafted with care will be savored and incorporated into the lives of many. When you buy at least three, you release yourself to enjoy the wine as it’s meant to be enjoyed. (At least until you only have one bottle of it left.)