[NB: This is of course bullshit because I drank half a bottle of very ordinary riesling tonight - a WA thing en screwcap that tasted almost exactly like cheap green olives. I was not amused.]
- As of September 16, 2002 (my 33rd birthday), I will not have drunk alcohol for nearly eight weeks. It hasn’t been bad, given the circumstances: we’ve been in such isolated areas of the country that there really hasn’t been any wine worth buying (OK, maybe a few), and given that we’ve been camping so much, it’d be hard to enjoy any alcohol in such dirty surroundings. Really. Point out that I will break the dry spell by buying a bottle of the Leeuwin Art Series chardonnay, just because it’s a very expensive wine (well, expensive for a white wine; I’d rather buy an expensive red, but I don’t want to spend that much money!), and because I think it’s always a good idea to try things you really don’t want to from time to time, just to make sure your prejudices have some decent reasoning behind them. After all, my main complaint about chardonnay is that it’s terribly ordinary, and that it’s always more interesting to try things not as easily obtainable, such as a really good pinot gris or marsanne. But perhaps there really is something behind its popularity other than its sweetness and notable lack of any strong flavors…