No, not whine blogging, I do that enough. This post is about wine. I like wine, you don’t get the nick name “Vino” for drinking gin and tonics. Wine is my drug of choice and anyone who thinks that alcohol is not a drug might just have a problem. I did all my beer drinking in college. Occasionally I’ll have one on a hot day at the cabin but beer makes me have to pee, a lot. Wine does not make me pee since I don’t drink it like beer. A glass before or with dinner is about all I do. I don’t even think I get a buzz but it does relax me and I like the different flavors and tastes that wine has.

I’m not a wine snob. I’ll pour my wine from a box if I have to and there are a few really good box wines out there right now. The Black Box is a pretty nice wine and it lasts forever. The problem I discovered, especially while I was in the midst of my most recent divorce, is that if you can’t see how much wine is in the container you tend to drink a lot more. It’s not a problem if there aren’t empty bottles piling up in the recycling bin.

I am currently in love with a few California wines and one Argentinian wine. Right now Big House Red is probably my favorite wine. It’s a simple red table wine, goes with just about anything and it isn’t buttery, bitter or too sweet. It’s smooth going down, not too dry at all. What I especially like about it is that it’s cheap. A bottle of Big House Red costs me about $10. With a good vacuum cork it can last and more importantly still be drunk three days later. Alta Vista’s Malbec is a phenomenal wine and it costs about $14. If you haven’t tried either of these you should.

I have at least four cooking wines by my stove right now. These are the wines that were not corked tight and not used within days or wines that sucked. Do not ever buy a wine called Big Mamma’s Red. It is like drinking kerosene. Ignore the cute label, walk away from the really cheap price (which should have been a red flag for me). $3 is still a lot of money to waste on a bottle that you don’t even want to introduce to your freezer burnt roast that has been buried in the basement freezer for three years. Trust me its not a good wine.

I used to have a subscription to Wine Spectator. I love that magazine. It is big and has lists of great wines and even explains why a wine is good or bad. It has lots of pretty pictures and even a few recipes. Wine Spectator looks so much better on the coffee table than US Weekly or People magazine. Because it is such a large periodical I was able to hide my weekly rags underneath it. I stopped getting the magazine when I had stacks and stacks of it piling up behind my couch. It is our generation’s National Geographic. When my grandparents died they had boxes and boxes of National Geographic, it’s just not a magazine you can feel good about throwing away. Same with Wine Spectator. I also realized that I could just read the magazine over again and get just as much out of it. How many articles can you write about box wine anyway?

I have been thinking about starting a wine club. The same idea as a book club except we wouldn’t bother pretending to read the books that Oprah thinks we should. We could talk about the books we liked to read, books by authors who crank out book after book year after year. The ones who simply change the names of the main characters and the design on the cover. They might ad a II to the title.

I’ve also tossed around the idea of a wine club that resembles a Tupperware party. Offering several different wines and then guest would be able to buy them. I don’t know if this is legal but it could be a lot of fun. I have a friend who sells adult toys, she does a bang up business, pair it with wine and I think the sky is the limit. Women, even the most reserved and polite ladies, will hand over their hard earned money for Magic Fingers or edible underpants if they have had enough to drink. I know, I have three boxes of strawberry flavored underpants hiding in my closet. I really should throw them away but I am afraid that the minute I take them out of the closet a child will appear and want the fruit roll-ups in my hands. I can’t risk it.

As you might have realized from reading this blog I am not that organized. I probably won’t get around to organizing a wine club anytime soon. I’ve been thinking of doing it for over a year so far and haven’t done much more than that. I do manage to give wine baskets to friends and family. When someone moves or throws a gathering it is always safe and appreciated when wine is given unless of course they are friends of Bill W, then it isn’t a very thoughtful gift.