Over the past few years, I’ve been steadily developing an appreciation for wines, particularly red wine. When I go out to eat, I eschew ordering beers and wells drinks in favor of wine or some fruity concoction. Even better if sangria is on the menu! Now I’m not a big drinker by any stretch of the imagination but it only seemed logical that I should start purchasing bottles of wine to keep at home for days when I felt like imbibing. Of course, I didn’t want to randomly buy bottles that would go to waste because I found that I didn’t like them after I bought them. That’s why plum wine was the perfect place to start developing my palate on my wine journey. I usually order it when I go to an Asian restaurant and it’s cheap!
One day while I was eating at a Thai restaurant downtown, I noticed the label on the bottle of plum wine that the server was using to refill our glasses. It was Kinsen Plum Wine. We obviously enjoyed it so after the meal my dinner companion and I walked over to the nearest liquor store to see if we could find it. We didn’t then but when I accompanied my brother to a liquor warehouse a couple weeks later, there it was. For $6.99 (we paid $6.00 per glass)! I had to get it. But as with a lot of things, after I took it home it just wasn’t the same as I had remembered it in the restaurant. Still, I finished the bottle but made a note not to buy that particular brand again.
On my first trip back to the liquor warehouse since buying my first bottle of plum wine, I was again ready to start the process of becoming a wine connoisseur. This time I would forget all ideas about plum and sparkling wines and go straight for the red. The choices were overwhelming so how could I choose? The simplest way seemed to be to ask for a recommendation which I got from one of the employees. I told him what I was looking for— red, sweet but not too sweet— and he lead me to Rashi Claret. When I questioned his reasoning behind his choice, his answer “they pay us a lot of money to know about these things” was enough for me. He really seemed to know his liquor.
Once I’d taken my wine home, I resisted the temptation to sample it immediately and waited a day before opening. I peeled away the wrapping around the opening only to find that it was corked. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to savor it the way wanted (at least, not for the month I had planned on) because I had no way to close in the essence. And a search of the web revealed that not only is there no real effective way to preserve my wine but that I only had a window of a few days in which to drink it before the flavor started to change until it eventually turned into vinegar. Discouraging news but this also reminded me that wine is meant to be shared, not hoarded. I'll remember that for next time.
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