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Wine Is Complicated, And That’s OK
Wine

Wine Is Complicated, And That’s OK

Make your peace with this, and wine becomes WAY more fun

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Charlie Brown
Jun 27, 2025
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Wine Is Complicated, And That’s OK
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You might think me a wine snob, telling you wine’s complicated nature should remain exactly that. You may believe me a gatekeeper.

But anyone who has read my work before will know I’m not that kind of writer.

No, the reason I believe we should lean into the complicated nature of wine is that I’ve watched people try to demystify wine for years. It’s such a thing in the trade that there are memes about it, not to mention thousands of articles and whole social media accounts dedicated to it.

Yet despite all attempted demystification, only 9% of wine drinkers think they could tell the difference between a $10 and $100 bottle of wine. 86% of them still think wine is fraught with snobbery.

For all its efforts, demystification isn’t working.

I think it’s because we’re looking at wine the wrong way. We’re not accepting that it’s freaking complicated — there is no getting around that.

So it’s almost impossible to demystify in any meaningful way.

And that is OK.

In fact, I would argue that accepting that wine is complicated will give you better experiences. It’s the thing that could set you free from all the wine BS because:

a) If you want to, you can delve into a whole world of meaning culture with all the fascinating, deep things that come with going down a wine rabbit hole.

Wine isn't just a drink, it's a culture

Wine isn't just a drink, it's a culture

Charlie Brown
·
Apr 18
Read full story

b) If you just want to drink the damn stuff, you can. Accept it’s complicated and you no longer have to worry about looking like you know what you’re talking about, you can just get on with exploring it whichever way you want to.

And that is way more fun.

If you enjoy drinking wine but worry about not knowing much about it, the next sentence is for you:

You don’t have to know everything about something to enjoy it.

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