Careful what ye ask

Inevitably, a meanderer-in will bypass the lack of adequate shelf talkers and rating points, needing a guide, needing a reaffirmation–a little help, and ask what it is I’m currently drinking. Sometimes I say water and sometimes I say beer and that is not me just being a smartass. I drink beer to offset the continual bombardment of fermented fruit on my palate. Fermented grain is a counterbalance. I drink water because alcohol does not quench thirst even with food. This surprises people.

When we narrow the question down to wine, I say I’m mostly drinking whites from France and Italy and if they want it regionally honed further, I say the Loire and Alto Adige specifically.

“No reds?”

“Yes, but I don’t search them out. They find me and as of late, they aren’t looking too hard or I’m not paying attention.”

“Even in fall and winter?”

I toss descriptors out like clean, reverberating, refreshing, delicate, nuanced, crisp, acidic.

In contrast, most of the reds that I’m subjected exposed to require verbiage such as round, fat, jammy, syrupy, oaky, intense, rigid.

“That is exactly what I’m looking for.”

I then explain there are exceptions though, and those red’s attributes are clean, reverberating, refreshing, delicate, nuanced, crisp, acidic.

“You just described the white wine.”

“Yep”