How wine helped me stop drinking 🍷

Comes an unexpected tale about yours truly…

One that, to be understand, needs a skosh of context.

For many years, I’ve “loved” wine. Meaning, I enjoyed drinking it a little bit too much.

Now, I was always able to stop having adult beverages cold-turkey for a good length of time, so no, I wasn’t an alcoholic.

BUT…

I also wasn’t just having “a glass or two” of wine in the evening.

Well, technically, I might have been.

But only because I poured myself huge-ass glasses of it.

If adjusted for standard serving sizes? I was having, shall we say, perhaps a teensy bit more than a glass or two. And so, I naturally felt a kinship with that wee little Tyrion Lannister character who regularly polished off goblets of vino whilst whimsically waxing poetic about broader philosophical and strategic matters.

Here’s the problem: I was having more wine that I would’ve liked to admit. Plus, I was partaking – in large part – to obtain that delightful little buzz on the backend.

And I didn’t like the way things had shaped up.

But I couldn’t seem to stop, either. Meaning, I was in a bad habit loop.

What I really desired deep down was to take my time and actually enjoy a (normal serving size!) glass or two of wine. Instead, I was constantly drinking wine as part of my ritual of kicking back and “relaxing” (i.e. decompressing) at the end of the day.

Which brings me back to the punchline: wine helped me stop drinking.

And yes, I know that sounds crazy.

It’s also the last thing I expected to happen.

Here’s what went down:

I was watching Drops of God on Apple TV (great show, by the way).

As I was watching the main character tasting wine and eloquently describing its flavors and characteristics, something clicked on the inside.

You see, I’d always vaguely wanted to learn more about wine, but it had never really caught fire on the inside… until that moment.

In that moment, I knew it was the moment to dive in.

What caught me completely off-guard is that all of the sudden, I had zero desire to drink wine after that point. Instead, every night I would taste wine; taking my time with it. Instead of drinking in a mindless / checked-out fashion (that included zero appreciation for the liquid work of art passing my lips), I finally slowed down and became very present with the wine.

More:

I would hover over a journal, study how the wine looked in my glass, and write down what I observed. What color was this wine, exactly? How deep – or light – was the color, itself? How did that color vary from the center of my glass to the rim?

Next, I would carefully nose the glass and do my best to pick out specific aromas. What kind of fruit,  floral, or herbal aromas could I detect? What about bready or buttery or creamy ones? Anything “earthy” like mushroom, cedar, or tobacco? Any mineral aromas like slate, or spices like clove and nutmeg? I’d write it all down.

And then I’d finally take a sip of the wine (at this point already feeling well-acquainted with it; a far cry from my down-the-hatch erstwhile days) and do my best to appreciate its unique texture on my palate. What was its tannic structure like? How acidic was it? How much alcohol did it have? Was it light, medium, or full-bodied? Was there any actual sweetness in it, or was I merely detecting delicious fruit flavors?

And of course, every night I was practicing eyeballing and pouring as close to the perfect 5oz serving size as possible. So, gone were the days of having “one” glass… and then a little more… and perhaps a little more after that.

It was the most unexpected outcome I could have imagined.

And so, wine truly helped me stop drinking.

All because I’d started slowing down, assessing, tasting, and then savoring the wine. I was finally respecting it for the incredible representation it was of the countless factors that went into making it, not the least of which being the history of human toil, passion, and love that went into creating something I’d finally come to recognize as worthy of the reverence it justly deserved.

Just as soon as I embarked on this journey, I began recording wine-tasting videos every week and posting them online. Since I knew nothing about the wine world when I started, this whole approach made me pretty uncomfortable. But I also figured that, being new to the world of wine, I could serve as a very relatable entry-point for others who wanted to taste their way around the world of wine, too.

So there you have it: that’s the tale of how wine helped me stop drinking.

If you should ever find yourself wanting to taste your way around the world of wine with me, here’s where to start: https://www.bergfordperformance.com/know-wining