Sooo … who are you?

During many events and occasions, I’ve met someone for the first time and I enjoy asking them that very simple, but loaded question: “Who are you?” The looks that are returned to me are, well, interesting! It’s like taking the road less traveled because one never knows where it will take you.

Are you identified by your name? If so, why were you named thusly? Did your parents name you for one of their parents, one of your great-grandparents, a favorite celebrity, favorite place on earth or just because they liked the name given to you? How much heritage is reflected in your name? Ever think that maybe there’s a bit of culture being shown, too? How important is your name to you?

Maybe you reflect your personality to the people around you and that’s who you are. Are you impatient with folks around you or are you noted as the pleaser of the bunch? Are you identified as a caring person or a thinker? Do you blurt out your thoughts or do you stop and ponder them before stating your opinion? Are you an extrovert or an introvert?

Are you reflective of your upbringing in a rural area, an urban area or a suburban area? How did these foundations effect you? Do you still have the dirt of the rural area under your fingernails? Are you someone who can float between the urban and rural area with ease — a suburbanite? Or, are you an urbanite? You need that passage of people, vehicles and moving life to excite you? Whichever one you are, how do you shine that on the people around you?

Who are you and what made you who you are?

This may sound silly but these types of questions came to me while sampling a bottle of Lone Birch Pinot Gris from the Yakima Valley of Washington. I looked at the bottle’s label and noted a lone birch tree on it. Why? Who does that make you, dear wine? Reading the label I discovered the founder of the farm/winery planted many trees on the acreage and over the years most of the trees died off leaving the lone birch tree. Therefore, Lone Birch Wines were named and the result is this very fine white with tastes of pears and pineapple. Nice and dry with pleasing aftertastes — I believe I know who you are wine and I can see your home.

Like so many people we meet during the day, we take them for what we see. When you talk with them and ask them the leading question of who they are, relationships develop. Likewise with a wine…if you don’t take a second to ask it the question, do you ever really know it?

This does not mean that you sit at the restaurant table with your family or friends, take a sip of wine and talk to it. Your table companions may look at you a bit askance! But, maybe, take a second or two to focus on the beverage and ask the question: “Who are you?” Your relationship with the wine begins then.

During a saunter through the wine aisle, I noticed an unusual shaped bottle of wine and wondered who it was. Turns out it was an Italian wine from the Venzie region called Primo Rosso — a red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Merlot. To answer my question of who the wine was, I needed to purchase it and I’m glad I did.

Such a nice blend! I thoroughly enjoyed the heftiness of it and the cherry filled flavors. If you encounter a rather squat looking wine bottle, make sure you know who it is. I think it’ll began a relationship with you.

One last wine to note — Planalto Vinho Branco Seco from Portugal. Unlike the Italian bottle noted above, this bottle caught my attention because of its height! It isn’t often one sees a wine bottle that this tall — it’s almost 14 inches tall and very slender. I couldn’t resist because I wanted to taste this Portuguese wine and find out who it was.

It was delicious! Very crisp and dry and reflected the land from which it came — high altitude and rocky soil.

These wines tell us something about their home sites and, upon a bit of research — either via the mouth or the mind — they give us a window to who they are.

Like us — we are a bit of everything that touches us. From our genetics, to our families and friends, to our heritage and our environment, we are bits of everything. So the next time someone asks you who you are, ask them how much time they have because it’s a long and winding story.