How to Teach Oneself About Wine and What it Means

Pedagogy and Wine For this study into my own personal experience with pedagogy, I chose the subject of wine and wine tasting to learn about. Over the course of 2 months, I immersed myself into the world of wine drinking in order to better understand and distinguish the types of wine. Knowing next to nothing about wine and not being a wine drinker at all prior to this study, I entered into this subject with essentially little more than curiosity and a willingness to be educated.

Along the way, I found that this willingness on my part, supported by my overall curiosity, enjoyment of the subject and learning process, and sense of bettering myself by obtaining a deeper or wider knowledge of wine, all contributed to the success that I experienced throughout this pedagogical process. This paper will examine the ways in which I set about this process and show how I systematically paid attention to my own growth and development during the process.

The fruit of this endeavor has been two-fold: first, I now know more about wine than I did when I started; and, second, I now have a better understanding of how the pedagogical process works on a fundamental level. There are many theories of pedagogy that scholars have developed as a result of their own experiences with learners.

Freire (2000) is famous for describing a "pedagogy of the oppressed" which puts the ultimate onus of learning on the student and the community, which is responsible for taking back "education" from the Establishmentarian system that uses "learning" as a tool to support the control of the ruling class.

This pedagogical system is somewhat in alignment with the Herbart's theory of pedagogy in that both approaches view learning as an exercise that leads to personal development/betterment and thereby social betterment and the individual's ability to give greater contributions to society (Kenklies, 2012). Method of Engagement, Pedagogical Approach and Choice Rationale How a person learns can be as unique as people themselves are.

Boyle, Duffy and Dunleavy (2003) for example show that, according to the four-factor Vermunt model, students can learn in a variety of ways: meaning-directed learning, which focuses on identifying meanings; reproduction-learning, which focuses and reproducing answers; application-learning, which focuses on understanding how to apply lessons and oneself; and undirected-learning, which has no real focus but the whim of the student/teacher. I began my study with a meaning-directed focus, but soon found that I was being too narrow in my approach.

Thus, I converted to an undirected-learning approach and allowed my experience to be shaped by the various environments into which I entered so as to expose myself to more wines and thereby develop my palate. For me, this is an exercise in "primary learning" -- the sort of "random" learning that children engage in, which they must later modify and arrange as they grow older (Chodorow, 1999, p. 190).

The expectations I had about bringing strengths to this study was that I could be open-minded and committed to involving myself in the process. The challenge that I knew I would face was in overcoming that complete lack of knowledge that I had about wine. (For example, if it all comes from grapes, how/why are there so many varieties?). The theoretical approach that I found to be most appropriate in my aim was that put forward by Wang (2016) in his work-in-progress manuscript on teacher educator William Doll.

Wang's work is filled with anecdotal stories that embrace a style of teaching that is somewhat Socratic in a way but that also conveys a sense of how we learn from simple narratives. It is a pedagogical process that is similar to the use of parable as a teaching tool: complex ideas are communicated in simple plots that are full of dimension and depth.

As Trueit (2012) notes, "story, with its origins deep inside a culture, represents that culture in a way science with its more formal, rational, and logical way of seeing never can attain. Story has a personal truth to it" (p. 22). Thus Wang does not describe his process as the collection of data, which he labels an "inauthentic" exercise in connection with what he is attempting to do, which is rather phenomenological in its methodology. Wang calls it a "topical life history approach" (p.

3) but it could just as easily be identified as a phenomenological approach because Wang is putting himself at the center of the study, drawing upon his own impressions of being in Doll's presence and conveying his own experience of this interaction as a springboard for deeper learning.

This approach struck me as particularly applicable to my own endeavor for this learning project, as it dawned on me from that start that I had to open myself up to this experience -- to the world of wine, in fact -- and simply allow myself to be impacted by the variety and vitality that the subject offers those who approach it.

For this reason, my recollections take a narrative form, with supplements from my journal of experiences being used to provide my process of development within the culture of the wine world. Wang's assessment that "Doll pointed out that his journey from the parade child to the king of chaos indicates the transformation on his part to letting go of control (without giving up leadership) and following nonlinear flow in chaos and complexity" (Wang, 2016, p.

14) is an important one for me in that it identifies the heart of the pedagogical process that both he and I used. Robinson (2011) has also pointed out that "letting go" can be a productive way to experience "free expression" and "creativity in education" (p. 4). Chaos and complexity are not concepts that should be feared but are rather characteristics that can give way to order and understanding so long as the participant keeps focus on the nature of forms.

What ideas are underpinning our encounters? By freeing ourselves to encounter various forms, we can shed prejudices and biases that we may have developed over time without even realizing we possessed them. This is what creative education is about -- and this was the approach that best suited my curious and enthusiastic immersion into this subject.

Learning Processes & Method of Self-Study For my part, I decided to adopt this same strategy of "letting go" in order to allow my immersion into the world of wine to be that much more authentic and natural. Instead of concentrating on learning a single type of wine (Cabernet Sauvignon), I decided to experience a variety of wines under the assumption that I could judge better what is a Cabernet Sauvignon if I have other wines against which I can compare it.

Instead of limiting myself and forcing my own dimensions on the subject (learning about wine), I opened myself to the subject and to others, and placed myself in their hands, allowing them to present to me wines that they thought I might like to try. In this manner, I learned about a variety of types of wine that I would otherwise have never encountered. I picked up tips on how to shop for wine (bottom shelf bargains are not necessarily better just because they are cheaper).

In "letting go" of my own need to control my learning experience, I allowed myself to have an experience -- I enjoyed, in other words, the phenomenon of truly learning about wine tasting. There is really no other way to put it other than to say that sometimes the best way to experience water is to jump in feet first. Letting go of the rope, the flotation device, the controls in other words, and learning to swim -- this is what learning is all about.

We learn by doing, by experiencing, by putting into practice our knowledge, testing ourselves by challenging our senses (Lopez et al., 2013) -- these are the thoughts that occurred to me as I submersed myself into the world of wine. My choice to immerse myself into the world of wine, therefore, required that I participate in wine tastings and commit myself to a routine practice of trying different wines over a 2-month period.

From my journal entries, which were made every 2-3 days over this time period, one can see the way in which my growth takes shape. As Hawking and Mlodinow (2010) point out, there is no one "right" way to look at the world -- just as there is no one right model of the universe (whether Ptolemaic or Copernican), as each has its particular uses (p. 41).

What matters is that we engage with concepts and broaden our understanding with them on a consistent and regular basis, committing ourselves to a course of action that will bear fruit over time -- and this is essentially the conclusion of Freire (2000) in his discussion of pedagogy as well. Insights from, and Analyses of, My Experience Incorporated into this study are segments from my journal, which highlight my growth and development in terms of learning about wine.

The initial entries shed light on my background to this subject and are included here so as to provide some sense as to the challenge that awaited me. 1/25/16 Growing up, my parents have never been wine drinkers. My mom has always followed closely behind my dad and he was raised in a blue-collar household in which affording beer was tough, so wine was out of the question.

Even now that they have done well for themselves, they do not appreciate wine like so many on my mom's side of the family do. On more than one occasion, the adults have taken to drinking wine at maternal family gatherings, but knowing little about wine, I always felt that participating would have been a waste of the beverage, for I was sure I would not "know" how to enjoy it properly -- at least that's what i figured they were thinking.

Between those experiences, and the household in which I was raised, drinking wine carried an aura of refinement. I wanted to join in, but knowing so little became a hindrance. Now, I have an excuse to tackle this goal of mine, and I plan to execute my baptism into the "wine-o" world in the following way. I will visit a local wine shop and ask a few basic questions about getting into wines, ask about book suggestions on the topic, and visit the local library.

Then I will begin purchasing and tasting wines, recording notes one each brand or type. As I progress, I will be recording notes. It is important to note here that one of the prejudices I had going into this study was that one had to be "educated" about wine in order to enjoy it or to even partake of it. I imagined that all wine-drinkers were "wine-snobs" -- but this was actually a projection of my own insecurity about not being able to tell one wine from another.

What can be seen from the following entries is that I began to slowly realize that wine is, in fact, for everyone -- that there are types and varieties for virtually every palate: something sweet, something dry, something complex, something simple -- there is no end to the types and tastes and smells. Moreover, different countries have different reputations for producing certain types of wine, due to regions and climates and the kinds of grapes that grow in such places.

This was all new to me but it showed me that these differences were not arbitrary but actually quite natural to the history of wine. But before I arrived at this knowledge, I had to simply start somewhere. The following entry describes my first real encounter with the world of wine. 1/28/16 I visited a local grocery store with a wine drinking friend who shared a few nuggets of wisdom with me. Her advice was not to steer clear of the bottom shelf because they are cheap.

Low price does not always mean low quality, and high price also does not mean high quality either. However, she said that the best bang for the buck is to find the middle priced wines. The higher priced wines tend to have extra flavors and require a much more refined palate to discern, so therefore do not typically provide additional enjoyment for a novice to warrant the difference in cost. This advice from my friend was helpful because it allowed me to understand the arrangement of wines on a shelf.

Whereas before these shelves had represented a chaotic mystery for me, an order and arrangement now emerged: I saw that particular wines were found in particular sections and that, indeed, lower priced wines were typically on the bottom shelf. I ended up selecting, at my friend's advice, a middle-range Cabernet Sauvignon. This was a red wine from the Napa Valley region in California. I was delighted to see that this wine came from the U.S. and that it was one that I could, in a way, call my own.

It was nice to know that not all wine had to have a foreign label on it in order to be good. I enjoyed drinking the wine with my friend that evening. We each had a glass. I was not overwhelmed by the flavor or the alcohol content. I found it to be relaxing and it was fun to drink it from the wine goblets that I also purchased.

Something about enjoying a beverage in its own special glass gives the experience a heightened effect and makes it seem not so commonplace or every day. We followed the "protocol" of looking at the color, smelling the wine in the glass, trying to identify the aromas and then the different tastes (WineFolly, 2014). I thought I called taste and smell cherry and even chocolate in the wine, but these notes were very subtle and hard for me to describe.

I could not tell if the wine was "heavy" or "light" as I really had nothing to compare it to. And instead of trying to focus solely on the Cab varieties, I began to branch out after this experience and see what other wines were like. 2/4/16 I went to Carraba's Italian Grill for dinner tonight and ordered a glass of blackberry sangria with dinner. It was happy hour so I ended up with two glasses' worth. It was smooth and sweet, and tasted more like juice than wine to me.

I am wondering if it had anything besides wine and juice in it because it ended up making me feel like I had imbibed more than just a glass or two. Perhaps it had some brandy in it, but I really can't know for sure. The glass was delivered with ice, a lemon wedge, and a large blackberry already in the glass. The server poured the sangria over the ice and set down the decanter.

I made it last through my dinner, although it was so delicious I would have liked to drink it down much faster. This experience was an interesting one to compare against my initial experience with the Cab. This was a "fun" wine -- one that I could imagine having at a party. It was easy to drink and went down much more easily than the Cab, which, while it did not require much effort, did demand a sort of commitment.

The sangria, I would come to understand upon doing some research, was simply a mixture of wine and fruit juice, with some fruit added to the glass along with ice. It no doubt felt so powerful because of the "double" serving that it was. A few days later I would be heading back out to a restaurant for dinner and I planned to again try some wine. I wanted to have either sangria or another Cabernet Sauvignon in order to familiarize myself with these two varieties before introducing a third.

This concept of familiarizing myself with a topic (in this case a type of wine) was consistent with the findings of Doyle, Zakrajsek and Loeb (2013) who assert that one's brain type is one's best indicator of how one should proceed in learning. My brain and personality is such that I like to take my time with processing new information and familiarize myself with new concepts before moving on.

Some people like to experience a new type of meal or drink every time they dine, but for this practice I wanted to refresh my mind and palate, so I would stick with these two wines for now. My next journal entry shows what I experienced this time around. 2/9/16 I had two glasses of cabernet sauvignon at Bonefish Grill. This wine was a little dryer and I was prepared to try and sense the aromas, swirl the wine in the glass, read the legs, etc.

When I sat down and the wine was placed before me, all of the thoughts I had of actually tasting the wine went out the window because I had forgotten so much of what to do to attempt such an astute discernment. I remembered to swirl the glass and look at the legs, but I don't know yet how to make an assessment based on the legs.

I know that sugar and alcohol content are the contributors to the phenomena, but reading what information they share about the wine is still way beyond me. I have read that there are methods to the art of tasting the wine which include coating the mouth with the sip of wine, but after sitting down in the public venue to try and taste I became self-conscious of how I might be viewed by those surrounding me at the time.

So, I refrained from the swishing and gargling I had read about that some people do in order to decipher the complexities of wine. This experience showed me that there is still a great deal of self-consciousness and insecurity that a new learner can experience, especially when he feels that people are watching him and/or judging him.

This was consistent with the view of Rogers (1995), who asserts that one should be who one truly is -- and that feelings of insecurity arise, when one is "trying to be more than he is" (p. 175). In any learning capacity, one is trying to be more than one is -- that is the whole point. So it is natural that I should have felt insecure, and I do not intend to allow such a feeling to keep me from moving forward in the future.

My ideas about moving forward in my learning process involved expanding to different wines now that I was comfortable with some base knowledge about at least one type. My goal now was to visit Wine World and get some first-hand information from the wine specialists there. I also wanted to speak to family and friends and ask them to provide some direction through provocative language so that my own vocabulary could grow with regard to wine.

As Maslow (1998) states, "if one increased his vocabulary, he would also dramatically increase his learning by 10 to 100%" (p. 119). Thus, for me to really grow, I would need to know more concepts and terms associate with wine so that I could feel more prepared to swim out to the "deep end" of the pool, so to speak. Additionally, it was not so much that I learn the rules of how to use the terms that others knew, so much as that I familiarize myself with them.

As Davidson (2001) has pointed out, "most learning of how to use words is accomplished without explicitly learning any rules at all" (p. 113). Over the next few weeks, I focused on learning about several different wines -- reds and whites -- and I developed a taste and liking for a number of them. I enjoyed Merlots, Zinfandels, Sauvignon Blancs and others. I participated in taste testings held at Wine World and would purchase a bottle of wine to take home with me.

I engaged different people in conversations about wine just to hear more and more thoughts and ideas about the subject. These persons ranged from those who knew a lot about wine to those who, like me, knew very little.

This experience was just as helpful as any other because it gave me a view of the range of experience that others possessed and allowed me to learn a little from each one: I picked up on biases that some possessed that I also had at one time held; I picked up new tips from wine enthusiasts -- such as not to worry about the "correct" way to drink wine because there really is not one.

Wine is meant to be imbibed by the imbiber the way that he or she chooses. If, for example, you want to put ice cubes in your wine, you should feel free to do so. There is no wrong way to drink -- but to think that there is actually to become a "wine snob," which is not what I want to be. I simply want to deepen my understanding of and appreciation for wine. And through these various conversations I am able to do so.

Therefore, thanks to my willingness to "let go" and allow so many different persons to come into my life and help to direct my course through my wine tasting experience, I feel that I have learned a great deal more than I thought I ever would. In fact, I think I have done one of the best things that a new learner can do -- that is, I have developed a desire to continue to learn even after this project completes.

I say that this is one of the best things that a learner can do because I believe it should be the aim of a teacher not just to teach information and knowledge to a student but to develop in that student the desire and inspiration to continue to learn even after the class is over. If that can be accomplished, you know that the lesson has taken a deep root within. Learning, after all, should be a life-long process.

As Rogers (1980) observers, "To really know what I am experiencing in the moment is by no means an easy thing, but I feel somewhat encouraged because I think that over the years I have been improving at it. I am convinced, however, that it is a lifelong task and that none of us is totally able to be comfortably close to all that is going on within our own experience" (p. 14).

I remember these words every time I attempt to interpret a feeling or an experience in the moment: it helps me to just accept the moment and not to put too much of a strain or pressure on myself to discern what is happening within me. That is what reflection is for: later, we can come to terms with our experiences, sift them, and learn from them. It is a process that indeed takes time.

One of my final entries into my journal over this time period shows the extent to which I had developed an understanding of wine and of myself. It can be seen that I was growing more and more curious about wines in general and wine experiences that I was now aware of having. 3/20/16 It has been several weeks since I revisited this endeavor. I purchased a Yellowtail Merlot from the local grocery store this afternoon. I shall drink from it tonight and then record my thoughts here afterward.

I intend to drink a different wine each day this week as my schedule permits. I would like to try a pinot noir, and then dip into some blends. As I was taking communion this morning at church, I was wondering what kind of wine that is. Many people say they don't like it, but I have always thought i like it and it tastes fine to me. After trying the Yellowtail Merlot, I can say that it is a little fruitier than the Cab and I enjoy it.

I am definitely enjoying becoming acquainted with so many different wines, and if I look on a menu at a restaurant now, I feel more comfortable about choosing a wine, because I.