New to wine, looking for a teacher.

Hello, I am new to wine. It's been a little bit since I have really gotten into wine. It is my favourite hobby and I want to learn more about wine. Can I hope to learn from anyone here?

Welcome to the WLDG Tristan. Yes, can learn a lot about wine here, but not necessarily from any individual. There are many very knowledgeable folks here who can offer suggestions on any questions you may have. I notice that you are in Toronto. I would also suggest taking short trips to the Niagara Peninsula, where there are many top quality wineries. Some offer tours, where you can talk with the wine makers. You could learn a lot about grape varieties, grape growing and wine making from them, as well as taste their wines.

So about aging wines. I recently bought two bottles of Tomassi Amarone Classico and I'm looking to age them to bring out more flavour. Is this a good idea? and how would i go about doing this?

[Jenise]

Tristan, welcome. Yes I would recommend aging your Amarones. You want to lay the bottles on their sides so that the wine remains in contact with the corks, and store them in a cool place that hopefully never exceeds 70F, 55ish is even better. Discreetly date the back labels of the bottles so you know when you laid them down, and plan to drink each at two different intervals at some point in time in the future, say five and ten years respectively (depending on your age and your patience).

And as an aside, joining an online group like this way back when at a time when my excitement about wine was vastly out of proportion to my knowledge was one of the best things I ever did. I would drink a wine and come here and talk about it; and moreover I read tasting notes others had written about wines then bought the same wine and tasted them so that I could look for the same characteristics they described. I had a dozen or so mentors and none of them even knew it! Reading their notes taught me how to think about what I was tasting. I started opening two bottles at a time (presuming we'd drink no more than one a night, and back then only on weekends at that) so that I could watch how wines evolved over 24 and then 48 hours, sometimes longer. I took notes on everything and started posting tasting notes. It literally trained my palate, which is still evolving to this day--it's self-study of the most exciting kind.

You can do the same, and this is a great group to learn from. Tons of knowledge here, but a relatively small group so everyone will feel like friends quickly.

Welcome!

This place will be a great teacher and a lot of fun.

So about aging wines. I recently bought two bottles of Tomassi Amarone Classico and I'm looking to age them to bring out more flavour. Is this a good idea? and how would i go about doing this?

What Jenise said.

As far as bringing out "more" flavor, I can't say since I do not drink much Amarone but with other wines, I would say it will bring out different flavor and texture. My wife loves young tannic wines. Many wines that people would say are "shut down" or lack flavor.

Cheers,

Jason

Welcome Tristan. You're in the right place to ask questions.

When I wanted to get a basic foundation of wine knowledge, mostly so I could better match wines with foods, I started with Wine For Dummies. It's actually a very good book written by a very knowledgeable wine writer. Start with that, taste a lot and pay attention to how you react, and ask the people here lots of questions. You'll greatly increase your enjoyment of both wine and food.