Welcome to DallasWineChick.com. I thought I’d start the first column with a discussion about “wine defining” moments. I wrote about mine a few months ago in a neighborhood wine column: Wine and Eureka: A moment of discovery (reprinted from Black, White and Read). Since then I’ve been thinking about other wine defining moments in my life and ironically how a moment that should have been defining with wine was not. Almost sixteen years ago, I married a wonderful man.

He was my college sweetheart and we were in our 20’s when we tied the knot. The wedding was gorgeous and the reception was everything I wanted it to be – great food, friends from all over the world, an open bar and dancing for hours. Near the end of the reception we made our final dramatic exit. As we ran through the shower of birdseed and headed toward the limo, we flung open the door and piled in. And there it was – a bottle of White Zinfandel? On our wedding day? Really? Well, it seems the hotel forgot to box up meals for us and provide the wine so one of the groomsmen grabbed the only bottle of wine left at the bar before we ran out. That’s when I learned my first wine lesson – there are some experiences that go better with wine and there are some times when it’s better to wait for the champagne in the room.
Welcome to DallasWineChick.com
That is hilarious! But wasn’t White Zin still IN back then? 😉 I jest! I love this idea, and hope to read more of these personal moments. So what did you guys do with it?!
We took a sip (shuddered) and cut the limo ride short to sneak back into the hotel honeymoon suite to get the champagne. It was a fake getaway, but not quite what we were hoping for on a special day.
Funny thing — we were 24 and knew better!
What a funny story. Isn’t the mere presence of White Zin at a wedding a bad omen? 🙂 I guess you guys survived though.
Love the new site!
Ben, we were 25 and I do have a Great Aunt that refuses to drink anything else. I could offer her any of the close to 700 bottles in our cellar and she’d hate all of them. However, give her some fizzy pink stuff and she’s in heaven. For her that’s a good wine and who am I to argue?
Important distinction — other wines were served along with an open bar!
I think you could make a true fortune bottling the white zin + diet cherry 7-up concoction we give said Great Aunt at family events. All it will cost is your credibility as a wine expert – and maybe about $40 bucks per bathtub full (the preferred unit of measurement for crap).
Were you 24 or 25? Were you SO DRUNK!?
I’m making an age joke: I’m surprised it wasn’t a bottle of Liebfraumilch.
HA! +1 for me for that reference.
You need to get your avatar up for your comments and responses.
Love the site! Looking forward to hearing more stories. Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to create some together when we get another “DonatiDoesDallas” get together scheduled!
My statistics professor gave us a test problem that required analyzing the data from a famous wine taster who rated 100 great wines. But in the data set was a white zin. I deleted it and ran the computer analysis with 99 items, noting in my results that “no self-respecting wine connoiseur would include a white zin in a list of great wines.” I got extra credit for that.
Strappo, I’m 40 now – can’t I claim being senile? It was a long time ago (grin)
Pepper, Avatar is up, but yours isn’t (snap)
Amy and Big E, thanks for the comments and support guys. Really appreciate you.
Congratulations on your new site – way to go! This is great! Miss you and wishing you well.
Love this pic of you two!
we all started out with something resembling wine – mine was T-bird!
Welcome to the Dallas wine blogging scene –
Thanks so much for the warm welcome. So glad I finally got this off the ground.
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