[The only wine worth the effort is red. I don't dislike white, but I'd rather drink beer.]
Now, after having drunk 2 bottles from this order ($25 for $75 not including shipping), I am excited - re-excited - about wine.
The first wine in this whole process was actually at a bar: a 2008 Cab from the Libery School winery in the Pablo Robles region of California. Delectable. Never mind the fact that I paid $10 for a glass and found out today that you can buy an entire bottle for as much. Such is markup in downtown upper-middle class restaurants.
Later that evening, after COT's He/She, my ladyfriend and I killed a bottle of Vinum Africa from 2007. Another Cab, this one is from, you guessed it, South Africa. See? Exotic. And really good.
Finally, for Mother's Day, I brought a bottle from my Groupon order (from Barclay's) of Roza Ridge from 2005 - another Cab. This one, from Rattlesnake Hills, WA, was also totally worth the effort and money, giving me a reason to reach for it over beer.
I cannot abide by 3-buck Chuck. Tastes like the poison alcohol pretends not to be. 3-buck chuck is about $.75 per glass, which does work out to be less than most beers. The cheapest beer I can bring myself to buy is $9 for a 6-pack, about a buck-and-a-half per bottle. This wine, at full price, is about $15, so $3.75 per glass. And you wonder why wine is so expensive by the glass!
All 3 of these wines were worth it, regardless of whatever notes of this and that try to assert themselves irrelevantly on my palate. I prefer to taste the goodness and leave the notes to the mystery. It is, after all, just grapes transformed by time.
