My interest in wine goes back to my college days. I was living in a tiny efficiency apartment with a minuscule kitchen - an apartment-sized gas stove, a sink, a couple of cabinets, and just a few feet of counter space.
I'd always been interested in food, and here in my first adult home, I started cooking for friends. At the time, no one had heard of the term "locavore." There were no farmers' markets or gourmet food stores in the mid-sized Midwestern city where I lived. Lettuce was iceberg. Potatoes were either white or red. There were no free-range chickens, yard eggs, or grass-fed beef. Unless you lived on a farm and raised your own. So I did the best I could with what was available.
As a student with a work-study job in the college library, my food budget was smaller than my kitchen. But I experimented, fancying up the tuna-noodle casserole with a topping of grated Parmesan cheese (albeit from the familiar green can) and breadcrumbs or making the hamburgers more elegant by adding some sauteed mushrooms and a crumble of blue cheese. I tapped into my culinary roots (my dad was born and raised in St. James Parish, Louisiana) and made gumbo and jambalaya and shrimp creole. Welsh rarebit turned up on the menu from time to time. Beer and cheese were tasty together. And cheap! From an Italian cookbook I acquired along the way, I found good recipes for spaghetti with meatballs and lasagna. From my well-worn, food-stained copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," I learned to roast a chicken, prepare boeuf bourguignon, and bake a tarte tatin (thanks, Julia, I'm forever grateful).
When the feast called for red wine, I served Gallo Hearty Burgundy. For white, Gallo Chablis. The names sounded French and exotic. An inexpensive Chianti, the bottle wrapped in straw, when Italian was on the menu. I now know that the wines were dreadful, but I didn't know (nor could I afford) better at the time. Besides, there were some great conversations over those meals and my guests left full and happy. That's the most important thing.
Those days have long since passed. The menus and the wine have become more sophisticated. But the idea is still the same. I believe that wine is one of life's great joys. Not just in and of itself, but also for the pleasure that sharing in it brings, whether it's popping the cork on a bottle of champagne to celebrate a special occasion or enjoying a well-prepared meal and thoughtfully-selected bottle of wine in the company of friends.
I'm not a professional wine taster or critic. I don't plan to use a lot of fancy descriptors or numerical ratings in my blogs. I leave that to the experts. But over the years, I've tried to educate myself, to learn more about the art of winemaking, to develop an appreciation for fine wines. That's what I'd like to share.
I enjoy an occasional splurge, but most of the wines my husband and I drink can be found for less than $25/bottle, often much less. Those are the wines I'll be writing about most of the time, along with the menus, music, etc., that accompany them. I hope you enjoy. Both the blogs and a good bottle of wine.
Sante!
