Sara’s friends from work are really into wine, which makes me feel like I should know at least the bare minimum so I’m not a complete idiot. Plus it’s kind of fun! So, lately I’ve been learning a little bit about wine. So far I know 3 things:
1) The quality of the wine pretty much has nothing to do with the price. Even if you’re a snobby wine person, it’s okay to buy wine for less than $20. You can get good wine for $10 or $100.
2) I don’t really like white wine or bubbly wine like Champagne.
3) I do like red wine, but I’m not that into Merlot. I do like Cabernet and Shiraz.
We went to this awesome store in Delaware called Total Wine and it is as big as like a Target, but just for alcohol. It’s worth the drive to check out! Anyway, we bought a wide assortment of wine to try, so we’re getting there.
I went to see Anastasia last week! We had a good time. Her husband from Ghana made us some authentic African food and it was sooooo good. We played scrabble and stayed there really late (like 2 a.m. which is late for an old man like me). We also brought wine, which was part of the above cut. I had a good time, I definitely want to hang with them again. They are really into politics, social policy and Africa, but it seems like maybe they might be too into that stuff. And also I think she pretty much hates me because of where I work but she’s willing to try to overlook that. 🙂 Anyway we made plans to hang out again after the holidays.
Back in high school we played a lot of Axis and Allies and I absolutely love that game. It was out of print for awhile but apparently they are making it again. The only problem is that it costs like $40 on account of all the little pieces. But the other day they had a Lockheed Martin day at Toys R Us where you could get 50% off one item, so I totally bought it. $20 isn’t quite as bad for a board game! So I’m all ready to go and I think we’re going to play this weekend. Unfortunately I don’t believe Sara-The-Game-Queen is going to like it very much, but maybe she’ll humor me because she loves playing games so much that if that’s the only one I’ll play, she’ll settle.
Shane Halbach 
“It is well to remember that there are five reasons for drinking: the arrival of a friend, one’s present or future thirst, the excellence of the wine, or any other reason.”
Good luck with your research! My current vinocultural investigations are limited by a few significant factors:
1. Chinese wine generally sucks. And they like it that way. Luckily, we’ve found a French-Chinese joint effor vineyard that produces a few drinkable bottles.
2. Imported wine, especially California wines, costs a fortune. The local ex-pat shop hardly carries any US wines, and I saw restaurant prices for some the other day, and they were outrageous.
3. Our wine-loving French neighbor has Bordeaux tunnel vision. He rarely drinks anything else. So while I drink a lot of wine, I don’t broaden my horizons much.
So how is it that you never took Dr. Vine’s FS470 course with us at Purdue?
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