My name is Sarah, and I'm currently a senior in Biology here at Virginia Tech. I'm stressing out about graduation but trying to enjoy my last semester so I figured why not take a timeout from bio classes and learn about wine! Although I am a senior, I found out about this time last year (when all my other friends were turning 21) that my birthday is really quite late (September 17th)! Of course, I did not wait to turn 21 to try alcohol, but I didn't experience a lot with different kinds of wine until I turned 21. Before being legal, I pretty much just drank whatever my friends were able to get, and most of the time that turned out to be white girl Bud Light or the infamous Franzia. Franzia used to be my go to alcoholic choice. I used to think it was so tasty and I loved that it came in such great quantities so we could all enjoy it together.I really enjoyed getting all the differnet kinds of Franzia and seeing which I preferred. In the beginning, I LOVED all the whites (besides pinot grigio, yuck!). I remebered when I tried the Merlot, I thought it was so dry and bitter. I liked the sweetness and fruitiness of the whites much better than the dry and tart reds.
It wasn't until I bought my first bottle of wine that I learned that I had really been missing out. On my 21st birthday, my roommate and I went into 'Ghetto Kroger' so I could make my first alcoholic purchase. A very nice man asked us if he could help us with anything and all I could tell him was that it was my birthday and I had no idea what I was doing. He seemed to LOVE that and I'm sure you could've seen his smile from a mile away. I told him that I liked more of the sweet wines and that I didn't really like the bitter tastes of what reds I had had. He introduced me to my first love: Little Bosco, a subtle red with fruitful flavors. I had always focused on buying the wines with the most alcohol content before I had tried this wine. I got it home and checked the percentage and it turned out to be 6%! I was so shocked! Franzia at the LEAST had 12%, so I felt like I had been ripped off. But then I tasted Little Bosco. It. Was. DELICIOUS! I'm pretty sure we drank the entire bottle that night. It was so rich, yet light enough to not kick you on your butt within the first glass or so. I learned that night that alcohol isn't about just getting drunk, it truly is about the experience, taste and situation that you are presented with.
