Wine Talk

Let’s talk about wine.

The first wine I ever tasted was when I was seventeen at a friend’s house, who had one of those hippie moms that was cool with drinking and smoking weed.

It was Merlot, and the most disgusting thing I’d ever tasted. It was like somebody didn’t wash their feet before stomping the grapes, and harvested the grapes after they were almost raisins. It was awful.

Skeptically, I tried Chardonnay that my boyfriend’s mom offered me at a get-together with his grandparents. Surprisingly, it was delicious. I pretended I was a pretentious thirty-year-old pencil skirt wearing woman, holding a crystal glass with an imprint of red lipstick on the rim.

Then there was a jug of Sangria that I was made to polish off, because no one else in the house would drink it, and then I understood was Blake Shelton was singing about.

That same night, I tried a homemade wine from one of the family friends, and I was warned it was “panty-dropper” wine, and “knock you on your ass” wine, but being young and dumb and already pretty tipsy, I still wanted to try it.

It was passion fruit flavored and potent. I had a glass, maybe two. Next thing I know, my boyfriend is trying to help me off the toilet, where I decided it was a good place to fall asleep. Fast forward thirty minutes, and he’s dragging me to the bathroom so I can throw up red, which scared me until I realized it was the Sangria. That hangover was one of the worst I’ve ever had. I couldn’t stand up without being nauseated. Needless to say, I didn’t drink for awhile.

After I turned twenty-one, I started my experiment. My mom told me that pink wine was good, so I bought my first bottle of Rose. It was called “Yes Way Rose”, and I bought it because not only did I think that it was cheap for a bottle of wine ($10), I liked the cute name, the white and pink ombre packaging and it was French. So I was sold.

As it turned out, I don’t like Rose, and I found that out after I tried and wasted another bottle by a different company.

Then I turned to Moscato. Pink Moscato specifically. My first bottle of Pink Moscato was bought at a gas station. I know what you’re thinking.

It was the Barefoot brand.

Barefoot had been around since the mid 60’s, and this California wine’s namesake came from the traditional stomping of grapes; but the brand didn’t really take off until the late 80’s. This was the wine the moms of our generation drank.

It felt like a right of passage, finding a wine that I liked. I liked the Barefoot Pink Moscato a lot, but I wanted to keep experimenting.

Carlo Rossi Pink Moscato Sangria and Tisdale Pink Moscato were next from my gas station stop.

Carlo Rossi has been around for forty years, and plucked their grapes from the central valley of California, they were famous for their jugs “with a ring” to loop your finger through. Carlo Rossi believed his wine shouldn’t be expensive. What intrigued me was the combination of Sangria and Pink Moscato, two wines I deeply enjoyed. It too, was amazing.

Tisdale had a pretty pink and black tree on its label, which again, I picked for the packaging. Tisdale was another California wine, with an option on its website to find where you can buy it, which I thought was cool and interesting. This wine is actually very local, and I’m unsure if they sell nationwide.

In a conversation with my friend’s mom, she told me about Barefoot Pink Moscato Champagne. I’ve had Champagne before on New Year’s but it was dry and I didn’t like it, the Pink Champagne was okay, but still not great. This Champagne was okay, I liked the Moscato, but the Champagne flavor made it dull. It was exciting when my boyfriend popped the cork out and it hit the ceiling, making his mom scream and the dogs go beserk.

Then came my favorite, Risata Moscato D’Asti. It was introduced to me by a coworker when we got into talking about good wines. She mentioned it started with a “Ris”, it was a blue bottle with a pretty blue design on the front. I found it on the Walmart Checkout app, and bought it. I thought, for $15 this better be good wine.

It was.

It was like drinking nectar of the gods. It was so smooth, you wouldn’t even know there was alcohol in it.

Risata is an Italian wine, first introduced in America in 2006, with their Moscato D’Asti being the #1 Moscato D’Asti in the country.

I had planned on this wine being a special occasion wine only – but I’ve had three bottles to myself in one month, none of the others I have purchased a second time.

Have any good wines? Comment so I can enjoy them too!