Open Thread: Wine

Wine Aroma Wheel by Pierre Boucheron

I'm kind of delighted by this: it's a Wine Aroma Wheel.

I can't drink wine; it's a combination of the fact that every wine in the world (or at least every one I've tried, and I've had quite a few "wine for beginners" offered to me) tastes deeply bitter to me, and the fact that I have issues with alcohol. I can get deeply drunk off even the tiniest amount of alcohol, and the effect of alcohol on my body feels unpleasant to me in a way that's very difficult to describe. I think my mother said it best when she said that wine "makes my legs tingle and it feels bad"; it's not pain or even discomfort so much as deeply strange-wrong-bad-no. So I don't drink alcohol.

But I do enjoy hearing other people talk about alcohol, particularly wine. I think the aroma words above are lovely, and I like the look of wine in bottles -- I think wine bottles in a home are absolutely lovely decorations. I like wine labels, and have previously warned members of my book party that if the alcohol-purchasing is left to me, they'll get "the one with the kangaroo on the label because it's cute". (It is.) And I'm endlessly fascinated by corks and the products they make to reuse old corks, like the cork-trivet I saw one time.

Do you enjoy alcoholic drinks? What kinds of drinks do you enjoy? If you don't drink alcohol, do you have a fun/unusual/special occasion beverage? (I like the non-alcoholic sparkling grape juices. But they frequently puzzle the cashier, since they look like alcohol but the register doesn't prompt to check my ID.)

~ Ana Mardoll

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