vinotourist

Trust me, you’re not the first to ask “what the heck is a vinotourist?” If you’ll allow it, I’ll define.

vinotourist 🍷🗺

vino-TOUR-ist

noun

1.   a word made up to describe someone who enjoys drinking wine while dabbling in pleasurable pastimes such as travel, art and sport; “She’s a vinotourist; therefore, she’s never home on the weekend.”

Origin: Text message to a friend

In the ten years since the idea for vinotourist stuck me, I have evolved.

Originally, I thought calling myself a vinotourist would be a clever way to label my newfound fondness for visiting the Texas Hill Country wineries popping up around, much like wildflowers do in springtime.

The Texas Hill Country, home to a vinotourist.

I live near Texas Wine Road 290 and the beautiful destination wineries of the Texas Hill County. There are something like 80 wineries within an hour drive of my house.

And that number continues to grow.

Fredericksburg to Hye to Stonewall to Johnson City — these towns and cities along Texas Highway 290 make up the Lone Star state’s wine corridor.

Texas, however, is a huge state and in addition to the Texas Hill Country wine trail, there are eighteen more.

I was new to drinking wine and figured blogging my journey, sip by sip, to a sophisticated palate might be fun.

Wine tastings at wineries is awesome, especially when enjoyed with friends! However, the lifestyle was not maintainable for me. Even knowing that real wine tasters, like real ladies, don’t swallow, I could not help myself when presented with a lovely flight of three to five wines to “taste”.

Wasting wine is not my thing.

I found it impossible to swish and spit like you’re supposed to. Therefore, more than once I walked out tipsy. Headed to a second then third winery and woke up with terrible cases of wine flu.

Which, at long last, brings me to the evolution part of my vinotourist saga.

In the beginning, as seen below in a clip from my vintage site, the emphasis in vinotourist was on VINO.

My moment of clarity came to me while hanging out at the Museo Prado in Madrid, Spain.

Day drinking at the Prado

And no, it wasn’t that I still know so little about wine.

My revelation, I’ve been putting too much pressure on wine. It is not wine’s responsibility to insure I’m extra funny or can suddenly dance flamenco. My expectations have been incredibly too high.

Therefore, having seen the light, I now view wine as more of a companion. Someone (or something?) to enhance my life experiences; for instance, reflecting on what’s been seen at museums or while trying to tune televisions out at sports bars or when watercoloring a landscape plein air (that means outside).

Life is too short. Let’s fill our wineglasses and go do life.

Have wineglass. Will travel.

It’s been said that Americans are still reeling from Prohibition in the United States. That 15 year period ended almost a century ago and we’re still trying to sort out the mindset. By forcing alcohol consumption underground and making it illegal to imbibe in the least, our government skewed our perception of a once pleasant pastime into a punishable offense.

It’s a little embarrassing I had to travel 5000 miles or so to Europe to have my aha moment.

American renaissance

Our American culture is benefit greatly by changing our attitude toward the fermented grape, barley and potato.

To do my part, I’m reframing my own view and moving the emphasis of vinotourist from VINO to TOUR.

Redefining vinoTOURist

I’ve also adjusted my form when visiting wineries near home.

No more flights for me. I order a glass of the wine that the establishment is best known for and I drink it.

After all this, it may be a tough sell for you to believe I’m not pecking at the keys on my keyboard with just one finger to free up my other hand to hold my wineglass.

I’m not.