Wine is a passion.

Perhaps no one has ever said it better than Virginia Madsen's character in the cult movie "Sideways". She has a short, but powerful soliloquy about wine...how it is a living and breathing creature. How it will never be the same twenty minutes from now or twenty years from now. We all are well aware that once the bottle is opened, the wine that is released from the bottle is not only a sublime nectar, but an organism. And with oxygen comes change.

Change is perhaps a good place to start. Personally, I am undergoing a plethora of changes in my own life. Not to be to personal, but I plan to marry in 2015; around the time that hopefully this short book will be published. I will at that time also inherit two step sons. I have taken on an additional position within the wine world, and it is partly this that has made me so interested in writing about wine.

In my spare time, I write. I have finished a memoir that is soon off to publishing, and have two books under development today that should also be finished and published prior to this one. That being said, the last few sentences are goals and the former paragraph a dream. Bringing everything back into focus for a minute though; before I derail myself, I am on these pages writing a book about wine.

Wine became a passion of mine at twenty-three. I was a new financial advisor at a national firm. Typically, I would be courted by wholesalers at dinner or lunch two to three times per week. On many occasions, wine was ordered and served. It was in these first two years of my professional career that I developed a taste for wine. Since then, it has been growing like a wildfire in a dry forest. It is a passion that burns in the deep recesses of my gut. That is not to say that I imbibe everyday, as more often than not that would not be the case.

So let me draw a parallel.

In my profession as a financial advisor, I advise a select few clients with stock portfolios. Not for the faint of heart, or an advisor with one either. Instead of selling; when you have ownership in the right companies, it is more appropriate to "double-down" on losing days. I guess what I am trying to paint a picture of is a little bit about my philosophy. I try to pick small or mezzanine level companies that have all the characteristics of the hyper-growth companies of yesterday who are today's eight-hundred pound gorillas.

I am going to apply this same principle to wine. All of us who have spent some quality time in the wine business has a story about a favourite bottle of wine. One that went from being a $20 bottle in the restaurant, to one that is now $40, $60, even $80. I do not profess to be a collector as of yet, but I do have the desire.

What I will aim to do in the next few pages is to acquaint you with bottles such as these. Twenty-Somethings! By this I mean bottles that are fresh, bottles that could be old or new, but the idea is that today they are small or mezzanine level wines. Tomorrow, they will be on a stage earning "Gold" somewhere, but today they are bargains.

You may want to use this text in a number of ways. Perhaps as a book of recommendations, or the beginnings of a cellaring list, for personal enjoyment, or maybe even as a gift to your favorite "whino". No matter the reason, I hope to ingratiate you with some knowledge about everything from the vine to the glass.

So come along with me...Let's find some Twenty-Somethings!!!