Why Is Wine a Difficult Subject for Some?

By the way, here's another nice beginner's guide to wine. It glosses over a few things, but it's another short, neat guide to learning to appreciate wine.

But it got me thinking: you see so many "beginner's guides" to wine. It seems almost as if it were a hard subject, like Latin or trigonometry. You almost picture school kids with thick textbooks, having to grind out an essay to pass a class. Is wine really all that difficult? There must be something going on with wine, because I don't see guides like "beginner's guide to milk" or "soda pop for dummies".

It is certainly a complex subject. There is so much variety in wine that it stands alone from every other beverage, with perhaps the exception of beer. But unlike beer, wine doesn't seem to be so easily domesticated. Wine has an actual science attached to it: An oenologist is one who studies the literal science of wine. And that's not even mentioning a viticulturist, which is a horticulturist who specializes in grape vines.

But the laymen needn't be concerned with all that, should they? All you need to do to enjoy wine is to uncork a bottle and have a drink. Perhaps there are things we could do to make wine more "beginner friendly". Maybe a commenter or two can offer a suggestion?