Hey HS Law,

It took me roughly 3-4 years to achieve a strong level of expertise- a level at which I could handily discuss all major growing regions and also hold my own in blind tastings. This period included working as a sommelier in New York and taking WSET courses through the International Wine Center. I hope this helps.

Wineball

HS Law - it's a trick question right? Because how does one answer without implying that he or she is an "expert"?

And you really need to define what you mean by "expert".

For example, take a guy who knows quite a bit about wine and has particularly deep knowledge of some areas. He knows more than I do so for me he's an expert. But then what about the guy who's fifty and grew up in some region and started working at his family winery at eight years old? That guy is probably more of an "expert" - at least about his region and its wines. On the other hand, he may not have the same breadth of knowledge of other regions. So who is the "expert"?

No way in hell am I any kind of an expert so I shouldn't be answering your question. After drinking wine for three or four years, I was able to recognize the names of regions and maybe some flavors but I hadn't tasted enough wine from enough regions to claim that I knew much about them. Remember - talking about something and knowing about something are not necessarily related.

It's really an ongoing process. Robert Parker himself said that he's learning again with each new vintage and I think that's about right. Not only is each year different, but new techniques are developed or different methodologies tried and new winemakers are arriving on the scene and even new wine regions are showing up. As Greg points out - it's nearly impossible to be conversant with every region today.

And there are different levels of knowledge. One can learn the buzz words and do some reading. That's actually pretty easy knowledge to acquire. But then one can develop a palate and can learn to discern differences between wines and maybe start to note regional and/or varietal and/or producer and/or aging characteristics. That's a lot harder to do. I've been at it for a while. I think it will take the rest of my life.

Milestones? Everyone has their own. I can tell you a few of mine.

I was tasting a riesling one day and I thought to myself, it seems like I've had a few of these and liked them. I had kept a lot of notes so I looked and sure enough, I always kind of liked those. So I started to buy them and taste them. It helped that my parents drank them as a child, and maybe that was why I had an affinity for the taste, but I realized that I recognized it as distinct from vague "white" wine.

Another time I was tasting something and was asked what I thought it was. I didn't know but I suggested that it tasted like what I thought a good merlot should be like. Turned out that's what it was. Sniffed a wine that was poured and said "it seems Italian for some reason." It was a Chianti.

At the times, I had no idea why any of those things occurred to me, but I guess I had developed enough of a memory that I could start to recognize some things.

Good luck