I'VE STUDIED THE French language for decades in the hope of attaining some form of fluency. And yet all the conversation, the reading and the travel hasn't produced a "plus française" me. My conversational powers are largely limited to discussions about wine and, oddly enough, furniture. I know some aspiring oenophiles who say much the same about wine; they've taken classes, bought reference books and tasted lots, but they can't seem to get beyond the six basic grapes.

Wine can be just as hard to learn as a language,...