First Tasting:

Passions, like oceans and ugly shoe fads, ebb and flow. My great passion is history and nearly anything even remotely related to it. However, one of my lesser passions has recently come to the forefront: booze.

My fiance Chris opened a pub. I enjoyed libations before this, but now friends/customers will ask me specifics about beers or wine, and I find myself needing to describe them in a way that is both accessible and appealing (or not appealing... depends on the beverage).

I have many wonderful online friends who share this alcoholic passion with me, and this is for them as well. I hope they will continue to let me know about new beers and interesting wines. After all, such advice from trustworthy sources is invaluable for a pub serving the second largest selection of beer in the state.

My hope is to discuss the price and taste of a wine or beer a couple times each week, and I'd like people to offer suggestions or their own opinions. I'd like to stay away from a typical wine connoisseur's jargon, and lean toward how a person could best describe an excellent $25 wine to his friend. Pretension is fun, but is not my goal here.

So let's get this proverbial show on the road, and remember my fellow imbibers: A true wine lover will swallow and never spit!

First up -

Dom Perignon

I know, someone is thinking, "Well if all the wines will cost over $100, this is a stupid blog." That someone is correct - nearly everything I drink is under $40.

Why Dom Perignon?
Someone asked me what is on my "Bucket List." I didn't know what that was, but learned that it is a list of things one wants to accomplish before kicking the proverbial bucket.

Droll.

Anyway, I had always wanted to try a bottle of Dom. Not the $400 Dom Rose - just a regular bottle.

Chris, darling that he is, bought me one for my first annual 29th birthday, which happened to fall on New Year's eve. I had 80% of the bottle to myself (my deaf friend supplied the glasses, then took his cut... bastard).
After I tried Dom, I had a ton of people asking me what I thought about it.

In the darkened pub, the color was typical of French champagne. It smelled pleasant, in a woodsy sort of way. I sipped it, and was a little surprised. The initial flavor was very wood-like, which I enjoy. The rest was crisp.

Verdict?
I'll be honest - I don't know that I could have told the different between a $50 bottle of champagne, and Dom. Perhaps that's my ignorance of French Champagne talking, but I can't say that I would buy it again (though I'd certainly drink it again!)