Cheap Wine

Italian wine, ah yes, Italian wine. Whole sections in tiny markets are dedicated to the stuff and for prices that put toothpaste and shampoo to shame. The first thing I learned about Rome is the prices. Sure I was warned about that Rome was an expensive city, but I’m from Los Angeles, expensive is what I’m used to! Unfortunately when people say expensive, they mean it. Six euro for Herbal Essence? Damn.

Luckily wine is cheap as dirt here. Whether it’s pride or value, I don’t care. I never really drank wine in America, but here it’s everywhere, and is occasionally cheaper than water when shared with others in a restaurant, plus tastes better, so bottoms up!

There is a wine class offered at my school, and while I chose other classed over it, I plan on working together with its students in the near future to write my food piece for Travel Writing. To prepare, I decided to buy a bottle of wine beforehand. Something that is the bottom of the barrel, so I would be able to have something to compare with when it actually comes time for the wine tasting this week. This task interestingly proved difficult as everything sounded fancy to me, an uneducated student of wine. I thus reverted to the thrift store at the metro stop on Re de Roma. Incidentally, this store has amazing deals on everything from eggs to laundry detergent, being the only place I’ve found decently priced peanuts (don’t even get me started on other variations of nuts). I did succeed in finding cheap wine, simply called “Rosso”, clever. Incidentally, I am also a little over tipsy having quickly downed three fourths of a bottle.

Lesson learned: cheap wine tastes cheap. In Italy, if you go to a thrift store, you will find thrift wine. This particular variety, described as “fresco e leggero” tastes like the $8 wine I tasted near my 21st birthday: not very good. However, this wine didn’t cost $8, if it did then it would be good, instead it cost a little over one euro, the same price as these tortilla chips I am eating right now, interestingly labeled “tortilla chip - naturale”, which are also interestingly almost gone now.

Wine analysis: At 10.5% alcohol this wine is good if you’re interested in alcohol, as the taste is sure to convince you to gulp it. The color is red, a normal red to my eyes. I detect aromas of leather and old grapes. It’s “legs” are hard to analyze, which is probably a bad sign. Tannin? I have no clue. It is very bitter though and goes very well with chocolate, which makes me forget about the wine. Hopefully I’ll learned more from my upcoming wine tasting.

Something to take away from this: don’t drink wine alone while writing an essay. You will find it helps, at first, but then leads to distraction. Also, there is no one to tell you to share with, and one sips always leads to another after a certain point of “tasting”.