Wine

I was never fond of alcohol. But travelling and socializing puts me in a room with alcohol time and again. Cold weather in Europe makes drinking acceptable, wine, beer or coffee. I tried a few and found that I prefer wine rather than beer and sparkling wine is much better. Lieblich is my fave or sweet wine. A good friend said sweet wines tend to make you under the influence much faster for the sweetness will make you forget that you have drank too much already. Hmmm. Maybe so, but I have always been a sweet tooth. Asti Martini became a favorite with it being less than 3 euro in Germany. But Canadian alcohol tax and restrictions make asti here way too expensive. The husband of my friend and co worker, then my carpool as well, introduced me to the idea of wine making. No need to plant the green wine grapes as what someone I know did in Bonn Germany, but to buy the wine kit, equipment, provide space and time plus patience, then viola! You can have your drink anytime you want. We have tried a number of wine kits and the fave so far has been the sweet red wine of Diablo Rojo, sparkling pink wine of Island Mist Strawberry Watermelon Chiraz, and currently, Island Mist Green Apple Riesling.



Never mistake sparkling wine to be called as champagne. In a way yes, they are the same. But to say that is champagne would mean that particular wine came from the region of Champagne, France. So if its from Napa Valley or anywhere else either than Champagne France, lets stick to the term sparkling wine.

Sparkling wine is made by taking the simple formula for fermentation (sugar + yeast = alcohol and CO2), plus not allowing the resulting gas to escape. When you ferment wine in a closed or selaed environment, the CO2 return to the wine, only to be released in the form of bubbles after opening.

Be it red wine, white, beer or vodka, make sure you pair it with a yummy pica pica. Fridays are special for us couple. Ending the week with a wine glass infront of the fireplace and just relaxing and enjoying a good movie. Thats life.