 I start my day like a lot of wine lovers start their day with a cup of coffee and I am gonna have wine later today but when is too much too much we're gonna talk about it in this video. I almost got you there didn't I? Hello hello hello welcome back to exotic wine trial the show that helps you drink adventurously so you can expand your palate and expand your mind I am your host Matthew Horky. So I don't drink wine at 7 30 in the morning however I must admit when I've been on certain press trips before different regions different tastings or sometimes when we our samples get backed up too much I have to deadlines for articles I do have to taste early in the morning sometimes 8 9 a.m. but you definitely spit. So yes I actually love wine but does that make me an alcoholic? I'm gonna self-reflect and take a deeper look into the issue I love to taste as many wines as possible I love to drink it every day but that doesn't mean I get out of control and let let me explain a little bit I actually wish that wine was lower in alcohol like really really low because I don't actually like to get drunk or or tipsy I don't like that buzz feeling but you know what the thing that interests me so much in wine are the aromas the flavors the complexity links to history geography especially climate location producer stories that's what really gets me interested in my old food pairing as well so if you follow work you might think that we're just tipsy the entire time but that's not the case I'm gonna break that down a little bit but first before all of that let me tell you a little bit about my story growing up so I grew up in a wholesome farm farming family in Michigan in the United States and I have to tell you alcohol played zero zero part in my life when I was growing up my father maybe drank beer once every six months maybe once every year at a wet if we were at a wedding my mother never drank anything at home once a month or something I think I should go out with friends really wine had nothing to do with my childhood when I was about 15 16 years old I started experimenting with beer you know to be cool that when you're in school and I remember throwing a huge party in my house and I got out of control I am from a tiny town of 2,000 people seemed like everybody in my town the surrounding towns were there people out the yard drinking and I remember my dad walking outside and looking at one of my friends and telling my friend son it's time to go home and next thing I knew there was dozens of cars zooming out of the driveway going home and when I went back into the house I remember I threw up in front of my dad and I was just so embarrassed that I didn't touch alcohol from the time I was 16 years old until the time I was 21 when I was legally able to drink in the US that all changed when the wine bug bit me because once the wine bug bites you it holds on hard once I started tasting wine I wanted to taste and experience as many wines as possible and I have to admit when I started exotic wine travel and got into the industry I definitely overdid it if I overdid it a few nights definitely because there's always amazing food always basically free you're getting poured free wine all the time and I thought oh my gosh this is amazing so I would just suck it down but that started to catch up with me after a few years in the industry I started to realize wow you know there might be there might be people with with definitely with prop that have problems with alcohol especially the fact that you're around a profession where you're around it all the time but I'm not pointing fingers in this video it's not about everybody else this is this is all about me alcoholism isn't really talked about in the wine industry that much just because you know wine's always around all the time when you're going to events tastings when you're having dinner everybody sips a little bit they're having a good time but there are definitely some risks involved you're always around it writers writers and producers producers because you're making it writers writers and other people media because you're always getting sent wine samples to review so you have tons of free wine there it can get out of control pretty quickly but I'm going to take a look on alcohol.org about what the definition of alcoholism is and when I did that some of the things you know made me think a little bit and before we get started I want to give a huge disclaimer I am this is not my profession I am not licensed to give any kind of advice any kind of diagnosis so if you think you need help let's go out and seek professional help so under the definition they say that you can be diagnosed or you can be considered alcoholic if you meet some of these criteria let's take a look at the first one you're at risk for men if you have no more than four drinks on a given day and no more than 14 per week this one is a little bit tricky 14 drinks a week if you have more than that you're you're considered at risk now I have to be honest I like to have one to two glasses for lunch one to two glasses with my dinner as well so if you add all that up let's just even say it's just one glass that's two glasses a day 14 glasses a week you're already over your allotment so I think the only saving grace here is that you know when you when people pour wine especially finer wines you're not pouring a humongous pour it's usually a smaller pour and goes well with food and when food absorbs the alcohol so you really don't feel it much on a flight-hearted note I love what the Italians say if you're drunk you didn't drink too much you just didn't eat enough one of the criteria is giving up previously enjoyed social occupational or recreational activities because of alcohol use this one also could be a little alarming for me to live this lifestyle to do this to be in this industry I left my job my friends and family I cut all my social ties all my old hobbies to do this travel around the world explore wine regions write about them produce videos about them so this is kind of a great area for me I mean I write I write produce videos social media posts about wine that's my entire life that's everything this is since we're kind of a startup this is this takes up almost all of my time being unable to cut down alcohol use despite the desire to do so so this is where I think I'm okay you know last year because I was putting a ton of weight from not exercising from eating a lot from being in the wine industry I went on a hardcore intermittent fasting diet routine and I also didn't drink wine for a whole month and had no withdrawal symptoms actually was pretty easy I enjoyed myself it was fantastic of course I missed tasting wine being around wine people but everything went pretty smooth so that's a good sign another criteria is spending a lot of time obtaining using and recovering from the effects of alcohol this one's also a little alarming especially about the time you're procuring or finding alcohol and let me explain since I'm producing content all the time I constantly need new wines to taste I need to find new stories so a good portion of my day is dealing with producers wineries brands that are sending me requests to send wine to me me actually trying to find and locate wines I want to write about or produce video about to email them dealing with tracking numbers since we are always moving and always traveling you know when producers send us wine sometimes I have to regroup packages or I have to think ahead to where I'm going to be and send the wine there ahead of time that can be pretty stressful that takes up a good portion of my time I definitely think I have a fantastic handle on alcohol but if you look at some of this criteria some areas might be a little bit alarming so alcoholism is a serious issue and I definitely am thankful to take the time to produce this video and take a look at this you know we're having a discussion with a bunch of people once and she said something pretty profound she said I don't think it's it's what you drink and how often you drink it's why you drink and to me what like I said the alcohol is not important to me wine to me is the most interesting fascinating beverage in the world because it's it's not a commodity it's different every single year there's so much work sweat tears sacrifice that go into a glass wine there's so many complex flavors there's so much going on in terms of history culture grape varieties geography climate it's just really a fascinating thing and I think that's what keeps the intellectually curious and wine geeks like me so into the stuff because you can never learn everything about wine so I hope this inspires you to take a take a look at your life your friends and family life I hope that you drink responsibly but you still find the time to enjoy this beverage which I think is the most wonderful drink in the world cheers I'll see you at the next episode hello thanks for watching hey you made it to the end make sure to subscribe to our youtube channel click the bell so you know when new videos are out if you like content like this check out our patreon page where you get some behind-the-scenes exclusive content thanks for watching cheers