a quick note on wine

I hate red wine.

There, I said it.

I guess what I don't like about it is that it all tastes the same to me, kind of like beer (also not a fan.)  White wine has a light, crisp, taste which appeals to me and red has an oak-y, spicy, and (weirdly out of place) chocolate-y taste, but not in a good way.  Even when I chill it for forever in the fridge- which I know is proper red wine treatment, more about that in a second- it's still bleh. The only time I'll tolerate it is when it's made into sangria.  

Back in August when Sunnykef came to visit, we went up to St. Augustine and visited the San Sebastian winery, which was a longer-than-expected walk from historic downtown.  It wasn't the real winery because there was no vineyard, just an empty lot next door with overgrown weeds and broken glass.  Sketchy.  Anyway, I think it's where they just made the wine with grapes brought in, we didn't stay for the tour but sort of latched on to the tasting group at the end.  And that's where I found that there IS a red wine out there for me!  It's called Vintner's Red and it's sweet and not at all like any other red wine I've ever had.  It's not like sangria and it's not like fruit juice (er, I mean, Arbor Mist) but it's just really good!

So I went home and promptly forgot about it.

Now here's an interesting thing I did learn about chilling wine though- the general rule that people know is that red wine should be served "room temperature."  That temperature just happens to mean 55* Fahrenheit!  The reason?  "Room temperature" refers to the temperature of the wine cellar!  Who knew?  So, when you're ready to crack open that bottle of red, pop it in the fridge for a half hour and THEN it'll be ready.  

Yesterday, Scot and I were in Publix planning dinner- Fedora was coming up and we were going to do steaks and taters and stuff- and I saw a bottle of San Sebastian Vintner's Red for $10 so I picked it up.  It was just as delicious as I remembered, we ended up putting a couple ice cubes in our glasses anyway, but Fedora and I drank that whole bottle.  I feel ok about it though because red wine has anti-oxidants and is supposed to be good for you right?  I can now add that to my health regimen.  My pollen allergies have been kicking my ass this week so I even felt good about washing down a Claritin with my glass of red.

Oh, that's not a good idea?  Riiiight, the whole "don't drink alcohol with meds" thing.  Coulda fooled me, I felt great!  Come fall, when the Epcot Food and Wine festival is back, I'm gonna tear it up.  All other reds excluded, I can officially say-

I love red wine.

But I'm all out so I'm gonna go crack open the bottle of strawberry Riesling in the fridge.  And it's time for another Claritin...