I haven't had much experience with alcohol in general but I think that I've had the most experience with wine. Since turning 21 last year my boyfriend and I have been trying different wines with our meals or if we have spare meat and cheese to pair it with. We used to keep the bottles to remember the ones we've already tried and write our rating of them as one out of ten on the back of the bottle with a sharpie. I recently had to throw them away because there were too many for the shelf.
I think I need to broaden my horizon because all of the red wines I have tried taste the same. The only difference is maybe one tastes a little more watered down than the others. I've concluded that I don't prefer red wines because all of the ones I have had are too dry for my taste. When drinking wine I would normally chill the bottle and pour it into an unchilled glass but have found that I like to drink my wine with ice. It seems a little less “classy” if you will but I think it makes the wine taste better. My favorite wine so far is Stella Rosa Black but that doesn't even have grapes in it now that I am looking at the bottle and its ingredients. It is a mixture of blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry. Does that even count as real wine if there are no grapes?
Overall, Stella Rosa is my favorite brand, ranging from their apple wine to their peach wine but I am not sure if I am truly judging the wine on its taste or the taste and its price. To me, Barefoot wine is amazing especially since it's only about $5 a bottle. I would say Barefoot wine is my second favorite brand but I wouldn't choose to drink it for any special event. I would say I drink wine twice a month on my own. I am not inclined to drink wine for any special occasion. It is more of a casual tasting for me since I am still trying to find out what I like best in wine. I tend to lean more towards a semi-sweet wine that is not dry and on the lighter side in color.
In this class, I hope to learn more about what makes wine a real wine and broaden my knowledge of it. Does price matter when choosing a wine or are cheaper wines just the same as other wines and it's just the label that makes the difference? What are the differences in the places they come from? How can you make a wine taste dry as opposed to sweet? How come there are only semi-sweet wines and nothing sweeter when I look at the shelves in the grocery store? What wines pair best with what foods and how does it affect the food you eat? I have many questions and I hope this course will help me answer them and expand my knowledge so I can expand my friends and family's knowledge of wine as well.
