Editor's note: Long before Chris Shepherd became a James Beard Award-winning chef, he developed enough of a passion for wine to work at Brennan's of Houston as a sommelier. He maintains that interest to this day. When Chris expressed interest in writing about wine-related topics for CultureMap, we said yes.

In this week's column, he shares some of the wines that changed his life as a drinker. Take it away, Chris,

Every once in a while you come across a wine that changes you.

1998 Soter Beacon Hill was everything to me when I first opened it. It’s what Pinot Noir should be.

Story time. I had just taken over the wine program at Brennan’s, and there was a six-pack of wine in the wine room. I was familiar with the winemaker Tony Soter — he was the winemaker at Etude and then left to start his own label — so I was excited to try this.

I opened it after service, sat in the corner of the kitchen, popped the cork, and buried my nose in the glass. I found something magical. It’s a moment in time that I hope for every time I open a bottle. It was soft, silky, earth-driven, not too much wood on the nose. It had a great balance of acidity and tart red fruits. It transported me to Oregon — I tasted a sense of place. I search for moments like that every time I pop a cork.

‘Aha’ wines don’t have to be super expensive. It takes a little luck to open a bottle of wine — a living, breathing thing — at the perfect time. And my ‘aha’ bottle might be different than yours. We have different tastes.

I’m not suggesting you seek out these specific wines. I hope you find your own ‘aha’ wines in your life — whether it’s a sense of place, an experience, or sitting alone in the Brennan’s kitchen.

1995 Geyser Peak “Reserve Alexandre” Alexander Valley Meritage. Geyser Peak was a fairly well-known winery back in the day (it changed hands in 2012 and is now owned by an Australian company), and this is their Bordeaux-style wine—Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot, and Malbec. It’s a beautiful wine with big jammy fruits but not too heavy on tannin, which makes it very approachable.

As a young wine drinker, I found something I truly loved. Honestly, I probably bought it at Randall’s. Now, I’ve marked it as a favorite wine on Wine Bid (I wrote about Wine Bid a few months ago), and I have two 3 Liters that I can’t wait to drink.

Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé is consistently one of my favorites of all time. I collect it. I can’t get enough of it, and I drink it whenever I can. In fact, this wine inspired a dinner series you may remember called Respect The Rosé. Whenever I’m in Memphis or New Orleans, I drink rosé with my friends. We all love it so much that we built an entire dinner series around it. The funny thing is that we were never able to serve Tempier at Respect The Rosé because it’s so allocated, we couldn’t get enough to serve 200 guests. The chefs may have been drinking a 3 Liter in the back, but no one can confirm or deny.

This wine has three of my favorite grapes—Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Cinsault. You can find this from time to time at retail shops, but it is one of the more expensive rosés out there. But don’t be afraid — it’s worth it.

I. Love. Cab Franc. Cabernet Franc is a blending grape for Bordeaux-style wines. 2011 Chappellet Pritchard Hill Cabernet Franc is what made me want to join the wine club only to get this wine every year. Chappellet’s Cabernet Sauvignon is also one of my favorite Cabs, which I wrote about in my Cab Season column. This family has been making great wines for a long time, and they’re doing it right.

I thought I didn’t like Champagne for a long time. We all know, at this point, my opinion has changed dramatically. It goes well with everything. Champagne and fried chicken? Yep. Champagne and enchiladas? Yep. Champagne and backyard grilling? Yep. Champagne for breakfast? Yep. What changed my opinion? One four-letter word.

Krug

Krug has a bigger, bolder style of winemaking. All its wines are fermented in wooden casks and undergo malolactic fermentation, which is why Krug Champagnes are known for being rich, complex, and long-aging.

Krug separates its base wines according to vineyard plots, tastes them individually, and blends them later. If a plot’s juice does not meet their standard, it will be sold to another producer as bulk wine.

Another Krug fun fact: the back label of every bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée has a six-digit code. Enter the code on the website and find out the vintage, grapes, and vineyard plots used to make each blend.

On a personal note, this winery is one of my wife’s favorites. We were lucky enough to visit the house for her 40th birthday, and I can attest that it’s just as magical as we hoped it would be. All four of us that visited Krug that day found ‘aha’ moments there.

What’s the takeaway from this? Pop more bottles. Try new things. Your ‘aha’ moment may be different from someone else’s, and that’s ok. Stop drinking the same thing over and over again. Explore, and you’ll have plenty of moments to remember.

Email me your ‘aha’ moments and inspire me to try new things.

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Contact our Wine Guy via email at chris@chrisshepherdconcepts.com.

Chris Shepherd won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2014. Last year, he parted ways with Underbelly Hospitality, a restaurant group that currently operates four Houston restaurants: Wild Oats, GJ Tavern, Underbelly Burger, and Georgia James. The Southern Smoke Foundation, a non-profit he co-founded with his wife Lindsey Brown, has distributed more than $10 million to hospitality workers in crisis through its Emergency Relief Fund.