As Neil informed you previously, wine tastings are made out of all sorts of win. What he neglected to talk about, however, is how much win you can find post-wine tastings, from the dregs of papers lurking around in your purse. Being the woman, and holder of all things that is material (though yes yes, thank you to the menfolk that hold the wallets when purses are not in use), I ended up with the papers indicating our favorite choices.

They’re not too illuminating if you’re actually interested in the wines, but fairly entertaining regardless.

We didn’t manage to try all the wines there (I was determined, but my compatriots are far more rational than I), but from the ones we did try, we went in numerical order, roughly. Thus, you can see, in paper form, with what amazing swiftness we managed to go from sobriety to inebriation.

I love the last page, where there are notes on 4 wines; consisting of “!!!!”, “whee”, “whoa!”,  and “DD likeys”.

Haha, but all in all, it was a lovely wine tasting, I’ve discovered that my eno-childhood contained far too many bursting Starbusts-type fruity explosions that most of these French wines tasted very boring & watery to my palate. Ah well, children always did like bright colors.

There were still a couple gems that stood out, of which one, the FRV 100 (try pronouncing it in French, it becomes effervescent), was actually affordable ($19.99/btl) and truly the star of the party. I’ve never had a rose like it, and I might never again (once I’ve opened the one bottle I bought). The others were in the $40-70 area, a range that I hope never to approach on a general consumption level.

Rather than argue over whether or not vinaigrette counts as a liquid and therefore, eligible for a blog post (which, being slightly stupid and inebriated, Neil & I did discuss at length), I figure I’ll just post it up.

The bottle cap of this Trader Joe’s balsamic vinaigrette came off looking exactly like this — no human manipulation! Another sign of how awesome Trader Joe’s is?

(And for those who care — vinaigrette, being a oil-in-water emulsion, is about half aqueous. Good enough!)

Y’mean not everyone keeps them in empty pork fu containers?

If the Virgin Mary can appear on toast, can the Flying Spaghetti Monster appear in a glass of Arizona iced green tea? And if it did, how do I manage to preserve it for 10 years till I can sell it on eBay for $28k?