the corkscrew

For those of who don't know, The Corkscrew is a local wine establishment right off of downtown. Its very similar to The Tasting Room, which I mentioned in an earlier post, but its sooo much better. Several friends and I went there last night for 'Bubbly 101,' which was introductory course on drinking sparkling wine... not champagne, as I mentioned earlier. Apparently, a wine can only be called champagne if its from Champagne, France... who knew? Well, apparently my sister did.. but whatever. We actually got there a little earlier than expected, and we discovered a free wine tasting going on in the main room. A vineyard owner had brought his collection to try, and so we did. I tried a Sauvignon Blanc and a basic red... both were really good, and I wish I had rememebered the maker's name because I'd definitely buy a bottle of the red. I personally tend to not like red wine as much, but I really liked what he served. Christine informed me that cheap red wine is nothing compared to good quality red wine, and I think I've only had the cheap stuff, so maybe my dislike of red will soon change.

So, after our free samples, we moved to the class, which consisted of about 15 people. I was actually expecting a much bigger crowd, but the owner likes to keep the classes and small and more personal, which was very nice. I have the list of wines we tasted back at my house, so I don't remember the names... I might remember to come back and post them later. The first wine we tried was a frizzante, which basically means 'little bubbles' (spumante = 'big bubbles'). It was my second favorite of the night, probably because it was sweeter than the rest. The next two wines were Bruts (dry), and I surprisingly liked both. I don't tend to like dry anything when it comes to wine, but both were really good. One of them was called Cristalino, which is apparently a really popular sparking out of northern Spain. Spec's sold them by the truckloads back during the Christmas/New Years' holidays. And, best of all, its reasonably priced at around $10, something a college student could easily afford. The fourth wine I thought I would like the best, but it turned out to be my least favorite... a Brut Rose Vintage Champagne (France) from Nicolas Feuillatte. Its not bad, but it was just my least favorite out of the five we tried. The fifth and last wine for the class was by far my favorite, and of course the most expensive (~$120... sigh). It was a vintage Cremant wine from Schramsberg (California). Again, it was on the sweeter end, and I thin thats why I liked it more than the rest. Why must I always have expensive taste? heh Afterwards, I tried one more wine that the female instructor had suggested, and actually bought a bottle of that. Its a rose frizzante, and I honestly can't remember the name whatsoever, but it was realllllly good. I'll maybe drink it this weekend, we shall see.

So, I was supposed to go the Astros game tonight with the return of Clemens, but that fell through, so now I think I'll go to the gym and work out. As of next Monday, I'll have spent almost all of my paycheck.. where the heck did it all go?! Oh wait, I just paid for airfare and hotel for Vegas... hehe :) The next paycheck will last much longer.