Dance you monster responded to a current diary suggesting that we would be better off talking about wine. I agree that there are some benefits to discussing wine. So please discuss.
I didn't realize it, but apparently Bordeaux is out and Burgundy is in (I can understand the Burgundy thing, but is something wrong with my liking Bordeaux?). Any French red from 2005 is supposed to be spectacular. I bought a very pleasant Spanish red from my local Aldi's for about $6 a bottle. Not all the wine there is Winking Owl, which is an acceptable table wine, but not stunning. I tend to like dry, relatively full-bodied reds (I used to be quite happy with rot-gut reds -- a bad bottle of red was easier to take than a bad bottle of white -- but my stomach reacts badly to it now).
Italian whites are blase, so they say, but Oregon whites are all the rage. Our current favourite around here is a Sauvignon Blanc bottled by "cupcake" which tastes like melons or peaches, to me at least -- what do I know? We don't have a really top notch wine store, but our Hy-Vee grocery store has a pretty respectable store attached (although I am not terribly excited about their limited selection of cognacs -- while I won't usually go about $20-25 for a bottle of wine and am pleased with one that is much closer to $10, I will spend more for a good bottle of cognac than their low end selections). I once had a bottle of Italian white that literally tasted like drinking sunshine. Absolutely a transformative experience. I like white wines from the Veneto. And I prefer prosecco to champagne (but then I haven't had but one bottle of champagne that was more than $100, and that was for my parents' 50th anniversary and I brought it from France).
For summer drinking, a dry rose makes me very happy, perhaps with a paella cooked in part over a grill. In the fall, my tastes turn more to reds. What do you like? I will happily take recommendations for good but relatively inexpensive wines.
And let's enjoy that we aren't complaining about anything here (obligatory OH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! concluding comment!).