Finally, after 40 years, wine I can drink.

Frankly, I despise the taste of alcohol.

People who know me know that I have made a case of beer last a decade.

I’ve tried several varieties of mixed drinks, which usually result in me either making a run for a bucket, or, if i drank them fast enough not to notice the yucky flavor, hospitalization and/or incarceration.

I’m not a happy drunk, and I know it. I’ve done things while drinking that are Just. Not. Right.

I had decided, years ago, that there was hardly any point to me even trying anymore- I hated alcohol and that was that. Oh, now and then someone would dream up some concoction which would involve sickeningly sweet, cough syrup tasting stuff- and ice cream drinks that just tasted bad. I wanna shake, I’ll go to arby’s.

Then someone turns me on to these german wines- Beerenauslese, and Eiswein are the types, and they’re made in a very specific way- they are allowed to hang on the vine until nearly consumed by a special fungi, a process called, I believe, botyrising; the individual grapes are picked lovingly and made into wine. the Eiswein takes it a step further by waiting until the grapes are frozen, then making the wine, and by skimming off the ice so the water content is minimized and the wine takes on a very special flavor.

Apparently the French (and excuse my ignorance, this is all new to me) have a similar process, for a class of wines called sauternes, from the Bordeaux region.

I’ve now tasted both types of wine, and other than some subtle differences in flavor, I can say unequivocally that they taste, to me, like More. The Beerenauslese seem to be a tad bit less expensive, the stuff I’ve become addicted to is around twenty bucks a bottle. The Sauternes, on the other hand, starts around forty.

So after over forty years of an intense dislike for alcohol, I had a great time down at the liquor store, picking out a couple of bottles of wine for Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully Nobody else will like it, and I’ll be forced to consume both bottles myself.

Y’all have a good turkey day.

b.

Eiswein is also made in North America - in the Niagara Peninnsula, to be exact. The Icewines from here are considered to be quite good overseas, but they are EXPENSIVE! We have a 350mL bottle in the fridge which cost us 70$. It was an icewine made from Cabernet Franc - there aren’t many red icewines out there, and this one is just AMAZING!

Wow, thanks for the tip, I’ll have to try that one, Mnemo- does it have that subtle sweet flavor of the german eisweins?

b.