I recently visited Tennessee (what a beautiful place) and had the opportunity to go wine tasting during my time there. Well it was a very different experience for me (I think I could write chapters on the actual wine tasting experience) and I was a little shocked at how different the wine tasted to those that I am use to. I came to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that there must be wine “regions” on a grander scale than we normally perceive them.

Wineries differentiate themselves with smaller and smaller AVA’s and there is nothing wrong with that. In a way I think it helps folks (while confusing some) who focus on a particular region differentiate the wines from that region – they can taste the difference and often point to the terroir from which the grapes are grown. My tasting in Tennessee made me start to look at it on a larger scale as to where boundaries may appear where individual tastes are just so different that a wine goes from drinkable to not as you pass over a certain border and then got to thinking what would cause that? Thoughts and or conclusions by others on this would be appreciated because I could not find a specific answer, just more questions. Is it the type of cooking that goes with the food, is it a case of knowing nothing different, can you not make the same wine in Tennessee as you can in California, there are so many questions.

So for example, I am based in California and do drink wines from here, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Oregon and Washington and I am sure from a number of other places as well. Wine from Tennessee were “too” different for me, even those from varietals that I thought I knew. I got to wondering, if I was from Tennessee and had a palate for my local wines would I like wines from California? Any folks from Tennessee like to comment?

Or is it the likes of Parker et al that have influenced major wine regions so much that what would be considered “major” wine regions have been influenced so much over time that they are all starting to taste the same except for slight variances from the individual winemakers? Do the “off the beaten track wine areas” have more authentic wines and so when visiting and trying those wines we are just shocked by the different taste?

My conclusion for now – it is a good thing to travel and experience wines from areas you are not use to, it opens the mind even if it does not open the pallet. The good news for me – it has given me the desire to travel to more States within our country to try more wines and see what more I can learn and maybe you should to!