A good wine is like no other alcoholic beverage and generally is not consumed to get a buzz or get high, but to enhance the enjoyment of a good meal in a way that beer. gin, vodka, scotch, bourbon just can't do. Buy yourself a bottle of PINOT NOIR & pay no more than $20 USD for it. Have that wine with your next meal of beef, pork, chicken or pasta. Forget the white wine with fish thing. Pinot Noir is not a sweet wine nor is it bitter or acidic. It is internationally considered along with MERLOT as being a romanticized wine. Try it-----you will like it and report back here about your experience. BON APPETIT.
I know exactly what it smells like Lon... my husband until recently was a wine drinker , ( he's now got some kind of allergy to the grape) ... he, like you would say it smelled of chocolate, or peaches or cherries whatever fancy thing, and I could always just smell fruity or acidic alcohol, depending on the wine!! *bleurgh*...
Wife and I are definitely NOT wine connoisseurs, but, years ago, I did like Boon's Farm Strawberry Hill wine . For the 21 years I was single (divorced), I'd only date a lady that drank beer or possibly a mixed drink. Wine, other than Boon's Farm, always reminded me of folks that were rich and/or ladies that I could never afford to ask out.
It's an aquired taste. Others taste and say "Ugh, you paid how much for this rot gut." Some wines are better than others but all come across with much pretension, from France around the world to California. But it provides economy for many so why not make up a language to promote the product. I enjoy wine, have a couples bottles in the cabinet now but that does blind me to the snobbery and pretensions built into the industry. It satisfys some; mistifys others, Nay, I say I do like wine.
Another....”oh no”! Drinks with Green Creme d’ Menthe are a little dangerous after a person partakes of more than a couple of them. I had a few too many one night many moons ago and the hangover was such that I wanted to roll over and die. But, since life does go on, the other after effects and immediate alarm of finding out that one’s entire waste system has become dyed a bright emerald green is indeed the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. The hangover, having diminished my capacity for thinking clearly, had me nearly reaching for the phone to dial 911 until it finally came to me that the culprit was the drinks I had the night before and not some sort of green disease attacking my inner body.
I don't care to drink wine at all, but I do like to cook with it. When at my sister's home I will have a bit of her homemade muscadine, which is probably too sweet for a true connoisseur.
I have lived near wineries for the last 40 years. I went on weekend wine tours and I even used to make my own wine. Pinot Noir varies from winery to winery in the Pacific NW. I stopped drinking wine several years ago. My favorite was a Rose Cabernet. All wine started giving me headaches. I could never drink the expensive vintage long aged oak barrel wines even for free.
May I suggest that you consider "Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel". It's a very inexpensive California Red that will please your palate to no end. I had such a meal one hour ago.