Intro

An Athletic Trainer turned Wine Enthusiast. 

My taste for wine began in 2012, my senior year of college. My sister and I found this cute little wine shop in Morgantown, WV. (That's right, I'm a Mountaineer!) called the Wine Shoppe. We weren't interested in drinking anymore "Natty Light" or cheap vodka drinks. We wanted to class it up, if you will. This shop ended up being a weekly visit to try the new wines they had in stock. The two women who worked there were so friendly and always wanted to teach us about wine. Their love for wine became mine. At the time I never really thought of it to be a career, but I knew it was fun to learn about and I sure loved drinking it. 

Fast forward to July of 2015 -- I found myself always purchasing different wines every time I went into a shop just to see what it tasted like. One day, I was on my rooftop in DC talking to my husband about this bottle of wine I had purchased and the salesman being very snooty about my choice. I told my husband, "I wish that wine wasn't so pretentious." Does it really matter what he thinks? To me, all that matters is that you like it and if you want to learn, you can without judgement. I wanted people to feel less stressed and less pressured to know wine.
This started a "funstigram" called Wine Put Simply. 

May 2017 -- I was working in the athletic training field for about 5 years and had 3 jobs within that time period working 50 hours a week (sometimes more) and not enjoying it! Why would I do that to myself?
I started working at The Winery at Bull Run (Centreville, VA.) part time to make some extra money and have a "fun job." Well, needless to say I fell in love with the wine industry and totally jumped ship! I quit my athletic training job and started working at Sonoma Cellar (Alexandria, VA.) and maintaining my part time job at The Winery at Bull Run. 
I know this may sound crazy, why leave a steady income job to have a wacky schedule and maybe less pay? Well I believe life is too short to be unhappy at work. It made sense for me, I don't have children, going to grad school would put me in more debt than I already am, and school is always going to be there. 

Today -- I am a Wine Associate at Sonoma Cellar. 
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Now that you know a little bit about me, I have a few questions for you! 

Do you feel intimidated by wine lists at restaurants? Do you really enjoy wine but you feel like when people talk about it they sound a little pretentious or you get confused? What do you typically like to spend on a bottle of wine? When do you feel most intimidated when choosing a wine? What do you pay most attention to when making a wine selection? (region, grape varietal)
Wine Put Simply is a fun, no pressure blog to help the average wine drinker to be more educated, more comfortable and just have some fun learning about wine.  
In this blog I will write about whatever comes to mind, including... 
-Winery visits                                                  -Wine comparisons 
-Local wineries                                                -Food pairings                                              

-Budget wines                                                 -Date night ideas

I hope you'll join me on my journey through the wine industry.
Let's have some fun and please let me know if you'd like me to post about something specific! 

"Even more importantly, it's wine, food and the arts. Incorporating those

three enhances the quality of life."

-Robert Mondavi