My Relationship with Wine

Wine is part of my family. My grandfather, Edward, made his own wine, EdWine, in his basement, EdCellar. (Honestly he didn't call it EdCellar but perhaps I would have loved him more if he had.) His wine was so popular the local paper did a profile on him. Now he was a southern gentleman of sorts and giving his 12 year old granddaughter wine just wasn't something he would do. Instead, he let me eat grapes of the vines in his backyard. Those grapes were unlike anything I've ever had since. They were deep purple with a thick skin and sweeter than a cup full of sugar. (So I don't actually have a picture of them. This one is from Wikipedia. Basically looks the same.)

It's been eight years since my grandfather died. Despite all the red wine in EdCellar, my grandfather's heart gave out. In the time that he has been gone some other southern not-so-gentlemen have introduced me to the world wine that grand daddy Ed refused to let me see. Now let me tell you, the world of wine is, oh!, so fine! Or at least the small portion of the wine world that is Kroger's collection of Moscato. Mostly just Kroger's selection of Gallo Family and Barefoot Moscato. Oops. 



So I'm not exactly a wine connoisseur yet but I'm making some progress. Recently, thanks to my new Lithuanian friend Lukas, I have ventured into the depths known as Red Wine Ocean. I'll be honest, I'm not completely sold on it. Maybe it's because I grew up Catholic, but red wine reminds me of blood and always tastes like iron. I guess that means Jesus wasn't anemic. 

This semester will be about exploring my pallet. I have two main goals: 1) Find a white wine that I like that is not a dessert wine and 2) Find a red wine that does not remind me of having my knuckles slapped by a nun's ruler.  

Here's to learning about wine!