When I was in lower grade, I was very close to my grandfather. I knew he was fond of me, probably because I was the only obedient boy in our household. I could see this through his sad eyes every morning as he was seeing me off to school. Usually he could not get any one else to chat with freely throughout the day.
Mum and dad had tight schedules and it was hard for me and them to have any time together. I seemed to outgrow my age and rarely would you find me with other kids my age after school. Maybe this was because taking up numerous responsibilities at home had toughened me up and made me more mature. I was simply not interested in the play of other kids my age.
Apart from the good company, there is one more thing that made my relationship with my grandpa grow stronger. I used pinch wine from his wine cooler when he was away. He knew this however but made no fuss about it. He would even at times allow me to sip from his glass when mum wasn’t around.
Ever since I took the first sip of his favorite wine, I fell in love with it. Unlike other kids who would go for candies, I would prefer the tingling sensation I would get by taking a little wine. Many times however I would get tipsy and doze off.
During all this time, no one seemed to notice my queer behavior until one day when my mum caught me red handed. It was then that she realized why I would always run to my grandpas’ wine cooler every time I got home from school.
When I was 20, my addiction had already begun transforming into a hobby. I would frequent a winery that is a few miles from home just to learn how to make different types of wines. With time, I developed a new skill- wine tasting, that took my passion to a whole new level. My experience with wines earned me a reputation with the locals and I now serve clients locally and from other parts of the globe.
For me, each day is a new learning day. I don’t consider it as a job but an adventure that I started since I was a little boy. From my experience, it takes more than the love for wine to differentiate the different types of wines.
With time, I enrolled to a local college to learn coffee cupping, a course that goes hand in hand with wine tasting. I realized that my grandpa would shift to coffee whenever it was cold or on any other occasion when he didn’t call for a glass of wine. My grandpa is the best coffee brewer I have known for years.
The classic espresso machine that I use today cannot beat the coffee my grandpa brewed. I however always still have a feeling of nostalgia when I take a well brewed cup of coffee