A Chance Discovery on Vacation Changed My Whole Perspective on Wine

During a recent stay in London, my wife and I took an early evening stroll down Lamb's Conduit Street, in the West End district of Bloomsbury, a mere 15-minute walk from the din of Piccadilly Circus but a world away: peaceful, elegant, a medley of quaint shops and stately houses, tucked amid which was a restaurant called Noble Rot. The atmosphere was convivial, the food delicious, the wine exquisitely paired. On the bar counter were copies of a small but thick magazine, also called Noble Rot, adorned with a bright hipster-cartoon cover. Out of curiosity, I bought one--and, as sometimes happens in random moments, my take on a whole slice of life began to change. In this case, what changed was my attitude toward wine and its seriously playful possibilities.