A Very Frasier Affair

I went to a wine-tasting at my friend's house last night.

It was pretty intense. This guy clearly knows and loves his wine.

We were each instructed to bring a specific kind of wine, from a specific region, of a specific vintage. My assigned wine was: Pinot Noir from the Central Valley from either 2001 or 2002.

The theme was: California Here I Come! And thus all the wines were from various parts of the Golden State.

As the tasting was about to commence we were handed four page packets of typed notes describing each wine, its ideal characteristics, flavors to look for, and foods to pair it with. At the bottom of each note was room for us to jot our own reflections on the color, taste, bouquet, aftertaste, and finally our own subjective score.

My favorites of the White category was: Chardonnay from Mendocino County.

My favorite Red was: My very own Pinot Noir!

And my favorite wine overall was: A Napa Valley dessert wine called Shahpar, Late Harvest. It was very sweet and smooth....a blend of late harvest semillon and sauvignon blanc. I gave it 10 out of 10!

I don't usually do such mature and cultured things like wine-tasting so the whole night felt a little surreal. Having gone straight into the poor undergrad life to the working poor to the poor grad-student kind of life, I've never felt like I had the excess time or money to indulge in extracurricular activities that extended beyond TV and pizza.

I wonder if I'll turn out to be a "Frasier". One of those people who regularly attends museums, art gallery openings, ballets, operas, and of course, wine-tastings.