On not-so-fine wine:

I've decided that since I'm more or less a grownup, I want to figure out what wines I like. So I'm going to write down what I've had and whether I've liked it or not so that I will know what to buy again and what to shun like the plague. Be forewarned that I don't actually know anything about wine so none of these will involve technical terms like "bouquet" or "yeasty." They should appear at a rate of 1-2 per week, depending on how much of a lush I am.

So here goes.

di Montefiascone dry white 2001 ($7.69 at the Coop). I picked this up while walking past the wine racks of the Coop. Usually a big mistake. But I like dry whites and Italian wine a lot and the price tag made it even more appealing. A decent dry Italian for less than $8 would be a wonderful thing to have.

Unfortunately, this is not a decent wine. It's completely tasteless. I guess you can describe it as dry since it isn't sweet, but I think that's a bit of a stretch. You can't even really call it bad, since it's basically just 24-proof water. Will said that it tastes like the house wine that you would buy in unmarked jugs in some Roman pizzeria, which is probably the best way of describing it. It claims to have a bitter aftertaste that I couldn't taste at all. Not that I could taste anything about this wine.

It does smell good and is pretty, a nice yellow color.

The Verdict: Utterly tasteless, boring, all the negatives of crappy white wine, though you can't exactly say it tastes bad. I'll finish the bottle, but I won't be buying another. Ever again.