My Wine Journey

As you all know, we three are no experts in wine education.  We just have a love of enjoying it with dinner and friends and learning all about it. So the other day I was thinking back about my wine journey and how my taste has evolved through the years.  My kids say I am a wine snob now.  I disagree, I am just a little pickier because I know what I like J.

Growing up in a small south Texas farming community, the choice of beverage was usually Miller Light and Crown Royal.  Therefore, not much wine was consumed except for on Sunday’s for communion (and we know that was top notch).  As I grew older, we ventured into Boone’s Farm and then on to white zinfandels.  It wasn’t until I started dating my now husband that he steered me toward drier reds such as Merlot.  That was my wine of choice until about 10 years ago when we moved closer to the west coast and visited Napa and really expanded my love for all varietals of wine, both red and white (all dry, of course).

So this past holiday when we flew back to Texas to spend Christmas with my family, we thought we’d pick up some wine on the way “home” from the airport.  Getting out of the city my dad mentioned a liquor store we could stop by and pick up a couple of bottles.  It was off the direct path, but that was okay.  After an hour and a half drive, we stopped at Mary’s Liquor Store.  As we walked to the “wine section” I started to cringe.  “Where’s the good stuff” I thought to myself.  Yes the wine snob in me was rearing its ugly head.  So my husband and I found a couple of drinkable wines and set them down next to my dad’s Crown Royal which he sweetly paid for and we all headed to the house.

That evening I was ready for a glass, so my mom pulled out her Waterford crystal wine glasses.  Wow, were they small.  So if you fill the glass as you “should” which is only to the widest part of the glass (so you can swirl it and let it breathe) you only have about 2 ounces!  I think my mom would faint if she saw the size of our glasses in our home (and no they aren’t as big as Jules’s glass on Cougar Town).  The other annoyance was the cut crystal pattern-you couldn’t see the “legs” of the wine.  After a couple refills, she made the comment “how many glasses are you going to have?”  Well, I wanted to say in a slurred tone “seventy-two” as said by Richie Cunningham on an old episode of Happy Days, but I didn’t.  Really, at two ounces per fill, I refilled quite a few times.  (Note to self: give mom wine glasses for Christmas next year.)

So maybe I have become I wine snob, but we had a wonderful time with family and friends and you can’t take that away from me.  Cheers!