for the love of wine

I love a good glass of wine as much as the next gal, but can I tell you that I really like wine?  In my younger, "going out" days, I never wanted to be seen with a wine glass because I thought it looked pretentious.  And in truth, sometimes it can.  But I guess I was too busy boozing on Miller Lite to get the desired affect to stop and smell the roses grapes.  I don't know when it switched for me.  Maybe with age, since we're in a metaphor type of conversation.  I'm hoping not to sound like a snob, because as you'll see I have very little prejudices and I certainly don't know all there is to know about it. I just love the taste and how it can feel like an indulgence with food or even for sipping after a meal.  It's all about the feeling, really.

I'm not here to tell you that the expensive stuff rules.  I don't think I've ever spent more than 20 bucks on a bottle, and I don't really intend to, save for if I become a collector (I'm on my way there with my hoarding habits) and have a fabbo wine cellar in my non-existent basement.  Nope, I like the good ole 10-15 dollar range and can honestly appreciate some of the great $3.99 choices at Trader Joe's.  They have some awesome picks (and you can usually taste them during your shop) and they are usually under $10.  

I'm usually a white wine drinker.  Something about the tannins or the sulfates in a full-bodied red can send me into full on hives and sweat-attacks almost immediately.  So I try not to order red in public and save that experience for the comfort of my own home.  Does that happen to you guys?  I love a Sauvignon Blanc or Fume and rarely like Chardonnay, because of the oaky tendencies.  But I'm also never one to turn a glass down, and like many areas of my life, I'd love to be wrong about something.  That means I'm learning.  So if I usually don't like Chardonnay and end of falling for one (said $3.99 bottle from Trader Joe's - I think it's called Santa Barbara something) I think that's a wonderful thing.  

And I love to keep up with 'Bon Appetit' and 'Food and Wine's' choices of the month because they usually give a good breakdown of cheaper wines.  Even they say gone are the days of the $50 bottle.  Hooray, because I'm simply NOT doing that.  And I like to see what the wines of the moment are, too.  All of these cuvee's like semillion and sauvignon - not a bad mix and I tell you what, that's what's keeping the curve low, in terms of mid-range wine choices.  If you mix the varietals and make an outstanding cuvee, the purists turn their noses down at it, while all the rest of us cheer at the $10 price!  


I like sparkling wine and champagne just as much.  Prosecco, an Italian champagne, is the rage in all the foodie mags and part of that's due to its affordability.  I love that you can get a great glass of bubbly on the cheap now, and unless you're going for the true French varietals, you can get excellent bubbly for around $15, like Gloria Ferrer. 

Here are my favorites that are under $10.

Nice dry white

fruity white

lighter bodied red

SWEET red

Cheers!
-Bethany