delicious consumption

I have been cheating.  Cheating on pinot with pellegrino.  I didn't think I was that kind of girl.  I didn't think there was a limit to my loyalty.  But it turns out I am that kind of girl, and my loyalty while eternal, has shifted.  I have retired the drink for the sink.  No not literally!  But I do sure enjoy a good glass of tap water. 

Surprised?  Its been overdue.  I, like the rest of my close friends, have slowly started the process of weaning myself off the wine bottle.  I guess it is only natural.  As babies, we learn to wean ourselves off of the breast, then the paci, then the thumb, then our nose, then the baby bottles, then as kids off the juicy juice, then as teenagers off the pop, then as college kids off the sauce, then finally, as approaching thirty-somethings off the wine bottles.  What next?  In our 30s, weight-conscious, will we need to be weaned off of the uber-trendy chia seed-filled water bottles?  And 40s and 50s surely we will need to be weaned off of collagen bottles?  Our 60s will we need to be weaned off of cranberry juice and Activia yogurt?  Our 70s we'll once again need to be weaned off of our wine bottles which we rely on to help us forget, and finally our last years we will need to be weaned off of our scotch and waters which we enjoy morning, noon and night.  Please, let that one go.

I guess my point is that when you get rid of one thing, then something else needs to take its place.  My reluctance in giving up my wine pleasure was that I couldn't think of anything that could take its place in the same pleasurable way.  See, what I liked about drinking wine was that it lasted several hours, when one glass finished there was another waiting, it had a feeling of routine and therefore evoked feelings of comfort and safety, and best of all, I liked that it passed time.  Suddenly my night would be over and I would be blissfully asleep unaware of any feelings of lonliness, failure, stress, aprehension.  The bad news was that in the morning, those temporarily dodged emotions would return, along with foggy embarassment.

And if you take another look at my reasons for enjoying a liberal wine habit, you'll notice the absence of the only proper reason to drink wine, which is to taste and enjoy the flavor and overall experience of the wine!  Don't get me wrong, I love the taste of wine - yummo, but I don't drink it because of what it is our how its made, I more so have just been drinking it to drink it.  Considering that my typical wine bottle purchase rarely exceeds $6.00, is it any wonder that I am not able to consider my palette at all discerning?

See, there are a lot of problems with my wine consumption, least of all my wine consumption.  What I mean is that I don't think there is anything wrong with wine consumption itself, more so with the reasons why or the manner of the consumption.  So for me that means I need to first change how I am drinking and then change why I am drinking.  First step - drink only in the company of others, second step - learn to enjoy drinking, the taste the experience, the quality.  Learn to taste, really taste the wine/cocktail, train my palette!

And brilliantly, to cope with solo-weekends, I have substituted pinots with pellegrinos, San Pellegrinos, and I could not be happier.  San Pellegrino in a rocks glass with a fresh lime is as enjoyable as any cocktail or any glass of wine I've ever had.  There is something so effortlessly chic about that delicious consumption.  Amazingly, I don't feel like I am depriving myself of one thing, but rather that I am indulging myself in another. 

Oh to be a grown up :)
xoxo