(Un-study Techniques) The Big Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

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This post is the second in our series on Un-study Techniques, or How to learn about wine when you just can’t stand to study any longer.

An un-study technique is an activity that will help you learn about what you need to know, but will NOT force you to crack open a book or flip over a flash card. An un-study technique is something you can do to help you learn about wine—in those times and situations when you are tired, unmotivated, or just plain sick of studying. We’ve all been there.

This week we offer an un-study technique we call “The Big Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.” Here’s how it works:

For starters, choose a wine-related (or wine-adjacent) place or thing—not a wine, winery, or an appellation—but rather something like a mountain, river, monument, city, statue, or village. This can be approached one of two ways: either start with something that is of particular interest to you, or go random and throw a dart. Here are a few ideas for your first topic:

• The Hill of Hermitage
• The Riddoch Highway
• Lake Garda
• Santa María la Real de Irache (the Monastery of Irache)
• Mount Aconcagua
• The Abbey of Sant’Antimo
• The Cathedral of Reims

If none of these float your boat, we have more. Click here for a pdf of: The Big Picture is worth a Thousand Word – Suggested Topics

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Once you’ve chosen your place-or-thing, do a Google Image search and find an image that you just love (and, ideally, piques your curiosity or wanderlust). Print out the picture (or just leave it on your computer screen) and go for it—do some research, and find out everything you can about your chosen mountain-river-monument-city-village-building-statue-or whatever. Be on the lookout for something fun, humorous, or just plain fascinating about the topic. What you’re doing is building some meaningful context that will help in the next step…which is, of course, studying the wines of the place.

The point of this exercise is that your newly-found contextual knowledge—besides the fact that it is engaging and will undoubtedly make you a more fascinating companion—is that it is likely to allow you to more easily understand and recall the need-to-know details about wines of the area. And yes, that’s the next step…study the wines of the area! Ideally, your new-found background knowledge will spike your curiosity and help you break through that “can’t stand to study” rut you’ve temporarily fallen into.

Be advised: this study technique is likely to result in you heading out the door to find a bottle of said wine—that is, if you didn’t purchase one in advance. Just don’t forget to record your tasting notes before the bottle is gone.

Stay tuned for more un-study techniques in the coming weeks and months, and as always, enjoy your (un) studies!

The Bubbly Professor is “Miss Jane” Nickles of Austin, Texas… missjane@prodigy.net