I am the type of person that is pretty set in my ways, but as I get older, I’m starting to like a few things that I couldn’t stand even a year ago. Take wine, for instance. I used to think it tasted like antifreeze smells, and that people only drank it because they wanted to show how much better they are than you. I always pictured your typical wine connoisseur to be standing in the midst of a small, elegantly dressed group, swirling his drink in a cut-crystal glass while talking about Property Gaines taxes. Or a Chanel-clad woman sprawled over her $10,000 sofa with a bottle of Nuits Saint Georges within arms length. But I spend a good amount of time hanging out with girls who are crazy about wine, and their enthusiasm infected me.
It all started as a birthday gift. My cousin gave me a wine rack, and several bottles of wine to fill said rack. I loved the way all the full bottles looked nonchalantly overtaking my dining room table, though I had never tried any of the types of wine that had been given to me. I thanked my cousin for helping me to class up the joint, then went about my business of consuming margaritas and various vodka mixtures. A few weeks later I had friends over, friends who just so happened to have a fondness for wine. Reluctantly, I opened a bottle, and we promptly began to get buzzed. Within a matter of weeks, every time these girls came over, we would polish off a bottle that was so conveniently placed out in the open for all to see. I started to associate wine with these two girls, sisters actually, and once the bottles given to me ran out I found myself at the liquor store ONLY buying wine.
I was in love. The full, pungent Merlot. The sharp and buttery bite of Chardonnay. The thin acidity of Riesling. The fruity mellowness of wines like Arbor Mist, and the crisp bubbles of sparkling wines. Moscato is by far my favorite. The saccharine taste appeals to my sweet tooth, and I could drink it all day, every day, if I had no self control. It goes down like water. My new-found affinity with wine has overtaken my old kinship with Champagne. While still a dear old friend, Champagne is now reserved as my special occasion drink of choice. My new fall back is wine. Granted, it wouldn’t be the same to take it camping, or slug it at the bars (except the Wine Cafe, of course), but I now understand the people who tout the health benefits of a glass of red wine being good for the heart. And I firmly believe that drinking wine has less of a chance of turning you into an alcoholic than hard liquor or beer. When was the last time you chugged a Pinot Grigio, or put a Brut in a beer bong? Wine must be sipped, and becoming an alkie one painstaking sip at a time takes real persistence.
So that’s it. I’ve now confessed my love of wine to the whole world. I have successfully changed my opinion on something I claimed to have despised. I no longer see it purely as the libations of the upper crust. Now when I think of wine, I will remember drinking it while sitting cross-legged on my living room floor while watching a chick flick, or using it to wash down a mouthful of Taco Bell. And you can’t get much further from “classy” than that.
Liliana Grace
Liliana Grace is Secret Laboratory‘s Women’s Affairs editor; her dream job would be sitting on her patio all day, drinking margaritas and alternating between reading and writing–and once she was sufficiently drunk, getting a massage from one of her several hot man servants. Visit Ms. Grace at http://ouischbabe7.blogspot.com/
Email Ms. Grace at lilianagrace@secretlaboratory.org.
Even though I drink mostly beer, there’s a lot to be said for a good bottle of wine; in fact, there’s a lot to be said for a cheap bottle (or box) of wine. MD 20/20 is great for toting around in one’s pocket, and boxed wine fits nicely in an empty Pepsi can for those trips to the park.
–Ed.