Wino Wednesday: I Pick Bubbly
By Susan Mercedes. Filed in Drinks, Friends, Wino Wednesday |
If you could only drink one alcoholic beverage for the rest of your life, what would it be?
My pick would be champagne (technically sparkling wine). It’s crisp, refreshing, sparkly and goes with EVERYTHING. By everything, I mean breakfast, lunch, dinner, casual events, fancy gatherings, indoors, outdoors, etc. You get the idea. I’ve even been known to drink it with pizza.
To make this versatile beverage even better, add a few girlfriends on my deck to enjoy a sunny afternoon. This is exactly what I did. First though, I had a very clear message for my friends. I needed their commitment. I had a magnum bottle of bubbly stored in my wine fridge that I was dying to open. This bottle is the equivalent of two regular sized bottles of bubbly. Once you pop it, you can’t stop it. It must be finished. They promised they were committed.
Once the bubbly was poured it didn’t take long for our chatty asses to kick in to high speed. Bubbly makes people happy. It makes us chatty. It enhances my ADD tendencies. We jumped around covering every conversation topic within the first 3 minutes. (I lied…three minutes is an exaggeration.)
Several sips later and the discussion took a dive. Not to a negative place. But to a deep level. An intense discussion. And my bubble popped! We talked about heavy subjects such as failed relationships and love lost. When I say we talked, I really mean I listened. Our conversation turned into more of a whiskey discussion. In fact, I would have imagined listening to country lyrics in a dark bar while smoking with the topics we covered.
Lesson learned: Popping a bottle of bubbly definitely deserves a commitment to finish it. Additionally champagne commitments should only include light, fun conversations.
That lesson probably explains why I would pick bubbly as my beverage of choice if I had to pick only one to enjoy for the rest of my life. I’m most comfortable living my life in a fun, light, chatty way.
What would you pick? Why?
Cheers!
Wino Wednesday…this weekly feature is designed to share my wine related stories.
Tags: bubbly, champagne, conversations, Friends, wine
Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 10:22 am
If I picked wine, wouldn’t “sparkling wine” fall into that category? I think that’s the way to go, provided I can switch up which wine I get all the time.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Misty: It’s our rule, so we can do whatever we want. Wine it is.
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Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 10:26 am
You went scuba diving on champagne? Whoa!
I think it would be a toss up between wine and vodka. Either way it would have to be open ended, as in every type of wine and every flavor of vodka. Man… all of a sudden I’m feeling thirsty.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Summer: Yes, a scuba diving adventure on champagne nearly killed me. Hopefully by now you have quenched your thirst.
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Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 11:10 am
Hmmmmm….I guess wine. Or Jack Daniels (straight up). BTW…..have you ever had almond champagne? There’s a vineyard here in Fallbrook that makes it……..best champagne ever!
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Kel: Almond champagne? Never tried it. Now I’m craving that shit. And pack a bottle on your next trip out. Yum!
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Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 11:12 am
Once you’ve taken a dive through the bubbly, you need Ten HIGH to float you back to the surface.
Here my friends experience a whiskey-related altitude gain last Pioneer Day: http://www.vulomedia.com/audio/audiofiles/88000Audio003.wav
Love my whiskey. Fancy scotch tastes like butterscotch and smoke to me. And I say this is a super talky extrovert: You don’t want to waste that shit on conversation. That’s for drinking with music alone. Like how you eat really good chocolate. You need to close your eyes and think about it. Hang onto some Jameson or Bushmills for small parties. Ten HIGH or Sunnybrook for campfires/John Denver singalongs. Mmmm. It’s too early to think this much about whiskey.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Erin: Oh my god, I’ll rolling. You know your liquor. I knew I liked you. And I must try this Ten HIGH stuff you talk about.
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Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 12:51 pm
August Briggs Late Harvest Zinfandel. Mmmm. http://snipurl.com/hygro
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Jessica: I haven’t yet had the pleasure to enjoy. It’s on my list now.
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Jessica Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I wish they would sell it in Utah.
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Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 1:41 pm
TGIWW! I eat pizza with champagne too. Just holler when you need someone to commit to finishing up the big bottle with you.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Diane: I did holler last weekend. You couldn’t. But I will be sure to holler louder next time. You’d be fun to get bubbly with.
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Wednesday, May 13th 2009 at 7:52 pm
I’m with Summer on this one: I’m a vodka loving wino.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Sarah: Regardless of what you drink, we all look hotter the more others drink. Vodka just gets us there quicker. Conclusion: you’re very efficient.
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Friday, May 15th 2009 at 12:36 am
It would be a toss up between bourbon and California Burgundy Wine (my absolutely favorite). But if I absolutely had to pick one, it would probably be bourbon because I can mix it with diet 7up and it’s tons less fattening than the wine. Though I admit I do like wine better because it’s a more mellow buzz/drunk.
I’ve never, ever had Champagne (call me crazy) in my life but now I’m curious. What kind (be very specific, I’m liquor handicapped) would you suggest for my first time?
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 17th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Amberly: Never had champagne?! Wow. Not very often I meet a virgin. I love “J”…simple label, great bubbly, middle price point. The type which I posted in my post is yummy too. Schramsberg is one of my favorites. It was my favorite tour in Napa since they store the wine in these caves. Crap, now I want bubbly.
Seriously though, the guys at the liquor store on Fort Union in SL,UT will totally help you pick. Be careful when opening bubbly since that can very dangerous. Fuck…let’s just drink it together. It would be easier.
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Amberly Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Great! Now I have to worry about opening it too?! Crap. I’ll definitely suck at that. I know this because I once forgot to bring a cork screw when I went to Wendover and oddly enough THERE WAS NOWHERE IN WENDOVER AT 3AM THAT HAD CORK SCREWS FOR SALE!!! The casino/hotel bar wouldn’t loan me theirs either, jerks. I ended up opening it with my car key (somehow) and felt like an alcoholic lunatic in the process while my non-drinking friends looked on in horror. In other words, drinking it together would not only be easier, but probably much safer, LOL.
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Susan Mercedes Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Amberly: As Katarina said….hysterical!