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!

Now I want to have wine. I wonder if I have any in the fridge.

Oooh, I have a single-serving bottle of the Bitch Bubbly wine in the fridge! Fizzy pink wine, yay!

Is it Tokaji?

Oh goodness. It was SO CHEAP in Prague in the 90s, we drank it like water, as we did many alcohols. Imagine our surprise when we returned to the states. Oof. It was what, maybe $5 a bottle in Prague?

Purple Cowboy Tenacious Red.

I suspect you bought this entirely because of the name.

Speaking of wines bought for the name, I'm very fond of Folie A Deux's Menage a Trois Red. It's a nice friendly blended red, sells here for about $8/bottle. Great weeknight wine.

As for a special wine, depends on what it's for. For a dinner, I'd go for a Pinot Noir or a Cab, or a Meritage blend. Or maybe an import -- I really like Brunellos and Chiantis from Tuscany. (Make sure to get the DOC label on the bottle.) For after dinner, I love a big fruit-bomb Zinfandel, those are fun.