Wine Rack Store Blog

Approaching the reds this evening with caution I decided, finally, to choose one even though there were  a few interesting looking whites. My reasons were these: the price was right; my second-hand wine drinking friends wanted some red; I thought it would go well with the fruit in my upcoming double-crust bumbleberry pie (to be entered in the Fall Fair and mentioned more fully in a later article). I opened the  bottle for airing, placed some kind of aerating lid on top and waited.

The bottle in question is a Benvenuto Barbera from Italy. Not sure why it is so cheap to purchase. I didn’t like the smell, but that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t like the smell of lots of reds, while others smell great and taste terrible.

Strangely, taste and aroma were worlds apart. There was nothing on the back label to indicate what I should experience, a good point I think because I wasn’t influenced in the least. In the nose I got burnt, dark fruit. Not burnt sugar, just burnt. Then I tasted, and this was a different story. Lighter in the mouth than many other reds, the liquid was dry but not uncomfortable. Of all the strange things: I’ve never tasted grapefruit in a red wine before. This is a tangy and refreshing red when sipped and would do well on its own or as that compromise wine. The one you choose when eating a salad with beef it and aren’t sure if you should have a red or a white. Maybe there are experts out there going ‘well, duh’, only using big words that amount to the same thing. I’m no expert. In fact, October will mark one year since I started this wine rack adventure. The rough edges of complete ignorance have been worn down slightly, but a country bumpkin I remain.

Now, if the topic were cheesecake…

Health Day just published a report about teen sex and STDs. American pediatricians are concerned about the lack of parental involvement in their teens’  sex education and how often sex is portrayed on TV and in movies without consequences. I would, of course, add the dangers of alcohol since I was a teenager. I vaguely recall wine coolers came in bottles too large to store in wine racks (as if), tasting deceptively like kool-aid. I wouldn’t drink either now, but  I expect my not-far-off-teenaged daughter might like to try one (not the kool-aid) before she reaches the legal drinking age.

Alcohol and sex: hmm. As if teens weren’t loopy enough to start with, imagine what happens when they drink alcopops. Then, there is the risk of picking up a glass or bottle into which someone has dropped a date-rape drug. Getting pregnant, STDs and the emotional upheaval of having sex for the first time are enough to cope with; I shudder to imagine my little girls in a crowd containing anyone sick enough to slip them drugs.

Were these drugs around when we were teens? If so I wasn’t aware of them. Booze was enough to make me an idiot, thank you very much. It’s a miracle when any of us gets out of the teens barely scathed if you ask me. As for talking to my kids, they already know more than they want to know. I have to admit to having no reserve about these kinds of discussions and frequently sending my kids into paroxysms of ‘ew, that is so gross!’ Long may that last.