I Consider It a Compliment...

Last Saturday I bought a bottle of white wine. The lady at the check-out asked to see my driver's license and she said,

"I didn't think you were that old."

More Champagne

It seems that the only alcohol I can afford is Champagne. I thought I'd buy another bottle since I had some birthday money to spend, and I found that of all the vintages I can obtain at Wal-mart, Cook's Champagne is the cheapest. I think I've mentioned before that under normal circumstances I have a hard time justifying the expense. So now I wonder, what is the difference between Cook's Brut, and Cook's Extra Dry? Can anybody tell me what these distinctions mean?

Medicine? Not Enough to Battle This Cold

I bought myself a bottle of cheap champagne to celebrate my 31st birthday. I brought it home with the other items I had gone to Wal-mart to buy, and just mentioned to my mother, whose car I had driven, and who was therefore at my house, that I had bought some nighttime cold and flu medicine for myself along with the medicine Parker needed. She thought that I was referring to the champagne.

I needed the medicine much more than I needed the champagne, and so I had to wait several days before opening it. You may be able to see in this picture that the champagne I bought was extra dry, not a good choice considering that I've been battling a sore throat this entire week. Last night I really paid the price for drinking dry white wine without enough water to recompense. I will not make the same mistake tonight, I must remind myself.

Two-Buck Chuck, and How I Know I'm Not An Alcoholic

I was given these two bottles of wine sometime approximately a month-and-a-half ago, and tonight I finally opened one of them. It was an inexpensive Cabernet Sauvignon affectionately referred as "Two-buck Chuck," bottled for Trader Joe's. It is very--grapey--and I don't know whether that's supposed to be good or bad, but at least I can tell what it is I am supposedly drinking for a change.

So tell me, what is good wine supposed to taste like? The experts are of no use in this area, because they already know what they are looking for in a good wine. They know good taste from bad, a familiarity with which I am not currently endowed.

What does dryness mean? What does "sweet" mean when it comes to wines? It apparently doesn't mean the same thing it does when referring to un-fermented grapes, or orange juice, my typical drinks of choice. It isn't as though I were actually trying to impress anyone with my taste in alcoholic beverages, is it? Because if that were not the case it would only matter what I liked, and not what was considered "good" by anybody else.

I gladly admit a weakness for sparkling beverages in most cases.

I mock myself and try to make a joke at the same time. I try this often, and it is difficult to tell, when writing, whether or not the joke succeeds.

(My policy is to never drink any alcohol until after Parker has gone to bed for the night. I don't want to take a chance on his needing to nurse too soon after alcohol has been consumed. This has knocked me out of enjoying the free wine at Northport's Art Night on more than one occasion.)