I bought a friend "El Bastardo" for his Birthday. He thought it was pretty good.

Not Helping cause I know nothing about wine.

Heh, Gar. You're so cute. I've seen "Bitch" wine, and have been mighty tempted, but it's screw-top, so I always wimp out.

-t, I generally subscribe to your cool label philosophy.

Sophia, now I'm afraid to see how old the B-52s are. I hope your birthday was happy.

Screw top is respectable now! Or was not too long ago. I haven't kept up.

Kate Pierson was born in 1948

and my mom in

1946.

For cool labels, I do not know if you get Bully Hill wine where you are, but they are usually fun they are from my county, and the wine maker in Walter Taylor (which is my uncles name, but not my uncle). He sold the Taylor vineyards, and then got sued for using his own name on his wine after he sold them, so ow has Bully Hill.

I'm buying artificial cork on a regular basis (is that biodegradable -- probably not) so it should be.

eta...

Scott has waaaaaaaaaaaaay distant relatives in Italy who run a winery (like distant in that they don't know we exist). If all else fails, I may buy their wine as a vanity purchase and hustle my friends to the restaurant, ASAP.

What should I get. Wine -- I'm thinking about a $25 bottle.

Man, I don't drink $25 bottle wine! Mostly because I drink a lot of red wine, and there's decent stuff in the $8-15 range.

Um. Off the top of my head, Purple Cowboy Tenacious Red. Marquis Philips Grenache. Australian Shiraz in general. Spanish Rioja and Tempranillo. (I've got an open bottle of 2006 Rivarey Rioja that I'm liking.) Maybe the 2006 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon. Kendall Jackson Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir, 2006-2008.

Not really a Merlot fan, either. And I haven't loved the Malbec I've had, although that's possibly because I'm not choosing the right ones.

Finally caught up on days worth of Natter.

Condolences, sara.

ita, I hope things are better.

From way back: My next younger sister and I are 11 months and one week apart. We're the same age for 3 weeks every December.

Most inexpensive wines are so good these days that it is hard to go too far wrong. Or so NPR tells me.

Screw top is respectable now!

It is! I still find it a little weird, but it's so nice not to recork a bottle.

I'll have to go to the liquor store and see if the have the Vampire wine in.

I don't think it hits the shelves around here until October.

I think it's actually from Transylvania,

It is!

and it's pretty good, to this deeply cheap, uneducated palate.

I like it, too. But then I'm notoriously uneducated when it comes to wine. Is it Tokaji? If not, then I have no idea, and think that wine should either match the color of my lipstick, or be pink & bubbly.

I do have to say that I am driking Yellow Tail right ow, AIFG! But I did have to recork!