Wine

I've been a food person (perhaps a post on this later), and recently also a wine person. Appreciation for wine increases the more I drink.

What I've learned:
I like fruity tastes. Oak, spices, tobacco, and smoke make for bitter, too strong wines. (Despite chardonnay being white, I think most chardonnays have too much oak.) I like whites with crisp finishes, and reds to be complex and lingering. But a young pinot noir is also tasty.

I read Chinese translations of an ongoing wine manga--Kami no Shizuku 神の雫. Unfortunately, reading names of wines and winemakers and regions of France is really horrible in Chinese. (I ended up just reading from the drawings of the bottle labels.) The art style is sophisticated and beautiful, with complex characters and great descriptions of the wines. The image that the wine invokes is represented by art scenes--a Queen's concert, a virgin forest clearing, romantic longing. And the manga is quite educational about aromas, handling, food pairings, and personal tastes. Now if only it will be picked up by a US-based fan translation team.

And though I've bought a couple of bottles from a vineyard in Napa--most of my wines come economically from Costco. I'm tempted, though, to request certain wines listed in Kami no Shizuku from wine stores. I wonder how much a bottle of Lafite Rothschild would be...?