Blog # 1

So here it is my very first blog. Welcome to Hunting Vines, I have decided that it would be wise to use my first blog as a way to introduce myself and why I have decided to create a blog about wine as well as what I will be blogging about. I also think it would be appropriate to outline my credentials or lack thereof as to why I should even be writing about wine in the first place. So here we go and please try to bear with me as this is my first time blogging.

To begin as you may have figured out already my name is Hunter Kangas and I am currently living in Ottawa, Ontario. I received my Baccalaureate of Arts (Honours) Degree in International Development specializing in political and economic development from the University of Guelph. Clearly, this has little if anything to do with wine, but it has provided me with the ability, I think, to approach wine critically and analytically. I really paid little if any attention to wine in my youth as I come from a long line of beer drinkers, but in the Spring of 2005 I was bitten by the wine bug during an anniversary dinner with my partner (Becky). From that point on I became increasingly interested and obsessed with wine. In 2007 I began working in the wine industry as a retail sales rep and in 2009 I completed the "Ontario Introductory Course for Ontario Wines" from the Ontario Wine Council.

Now certainly my credentials are not extraordinarily impressive, I have worked wine retail for roughly 2 1/2 years and have completed a small course on wine, but I do read quite a bit and taste even more. More importantly, I absolutely love wine and have such a passion for knowing everything I can about this liquid that I feel I at least deserve an attempt to blog about it. If anyone does decide to read this blog I hope that they also think I have enough knowledge and passion to write about this subject.

With that out of the way I suppose now would be a good time to outline what this blog will be about. I envision this blog to cover a couple of things. First, I see it was a good way to publish my many tastings notes. Over the next few weeks I will add as many of my past notes as I can and as I taste more wine I will add those as well. Secondly, I will blog about various wine topics, issues and debates that I think are important to better understand wine. Finally I will blog about my wine experiences from travel to various thoughts I have about the subject. Obviously as time goes on other things may be included in this blog so I will let it evolve and see where it takes us. Above all I just want this blog to be interesting, informative and a great addition to the collective knowledge of wine so I will do my absolute best to achieve this.

I hope that this blog will begin a great dialogue about wine so please do not hesitate to post you comments on this blog or email me at hunter.kangas@gmail.com. There is not much else to say on this first post but let the journey begin. Thanks so much I am looking very forward to this.

Cheers,

Hunter