My Life in Wine

I'm a 40-something, happily married without kids, career-minded, suburban female. I have a hobby. Wine. It's not all-encompassing like my other hobby, tennis. But I had to face up to the fact that nobody would want to listen to me talk about tennis non-stop.

As for wine, I'm no connoisseur. Oh, I can distinguish the difference between a 95-point Cab and a Two-Buck-Chuck (which I like of course), but I'm not qualified to describe the differences between the two in either qualitative or quantitative terms. So, minus the connoisseur gene, my hobby revolves around collecting wine labels and the memories that go with them.

I recently purchased this label lifting kit. The story about how I came to buy the kit is the first of the memories I'll share here.

I attend graduate school part-time. (More info to come, believe me). The little Southern California town where my school is located is called Claremont (look it up here or here or wherever - totally cool). I travel to school (and indeed all over SoCal) in an uncommon way. I use public transportation for roughly 80-90% of the miles that I travel.

Last semester, I had a class on Saturday mornings. Ugh! That cut dramatically into my tennis time! To console myself, I took leisurely strolls from campus through the village to the train station every Saturday after class. I often stopped for a bite at one of the many charming restaurants. And, I frequented the Birkenstock store and Chico's.

Well, one very warm late-April afternoon I stopped at a wine shop for a tasting. It was dark and cool inside. I stayed a long time. I lingered over each 2-oz taste in the 4 wine flight. That's where I found the label lifting kit.

The store had visually interesting displays, reminiscent of a wine cellar in some old French chateau. They also had a unique way of describing the qualities of the wine. I'm sorry I can't do their descriptions justice here. I'll have to go back some day. Here's the web page: http://www.winestyles.net/default.asp?id=456331.