Same Old Song and Dance

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18? Europeans do it, why can't we?

These arguments are heard throughout the country all the time by people my age; the controversy of what the drinking age should be. Is 21 too old to wait? Some people might think it's unfair to ask for alcoholic abstinence for two decades of life. Kids my age argue all the time that "if Europeans can do it, we can too. What's wrong with letting us drink wine with our meals? If we can send someone off to war at 18, why can't we drink." Right? We can be just like the Europeans... Or can we? Can us Americans, with our overly moralistic view of society, introduce wine at the dinner table to our children?

Eric Asimov, a New York Times writer, sure thinks this is possible. He writes that if parents introduce wine to children as something to be passionate about, and not just merely alcohol, we will see that drinking becomes part of life and culture. He states that kids will drink because it is part of a meal and of celebration, not to get inebriated in college.

Due to my bias on the issue, I won't comment anything, but I just wanted to share with everyone this very interesting, yet controversial, article that was published only five days ago in the New York Times.

The link is here, and it is titled "Can Sips at Home Prevent Binges?" Enjoy, and tell me what you think!
Cheers!

-Tatum
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Wanted for Work: Mother Nature

Here is a lovely picture of picked grapes waiting to be crushed at a vinyard in Bordeaux, France. I thought this would be a beautiful way to get into what I will be talking about today.

This fall I am slated to venture into something completely new and unexpected- the making of my vary own wine. A few friends and I will be clearing out my garage to turn it into a mini-scale winery. I believe the term is a garagiste, an amateur wine maker who operates from a garage or a basement. In any case, this year we will start small, perhaps buying a few juice concentration packs or maybe crush packs if we can find them. My friend Brad, who has started getting more into wine, and my neighbor Ricky, who just likes to make anything alcoholic, will be helping me. If things go according to plan and we find that this is something enjoyable, we will then proceed to purchase a crusher and a presser so maybe we can get a mini-scale operation that enables us to take real grapes and turn them into wine. Crossing fingers....

All this efforts is in hopes to learn more about what wine makers do to get a nice bottle of wine on our tables. As much as I respect and appreciate these wine maker's life-long dedication and selfless contribution to this drink, making wine will only expand that appreciation into experience. If anyone wants to know more about how wine works, there are a few videos on YouTube that you might be intrested in. So far, this is the best one I've watched- taking through the wine making process from Winter Park Winery in Colorado. It isn't too long, it's very interesting and has great shots and not overly advertising their product. Have a look if you're interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN6cfOhksYw

Hopefully that can help enthuse you more into the wine making process. It is truly beautiful; an art where man and mother earth work in conjunction to form and create the magic that is wine. Until next time, carpe vinum and cheers!

-Tatum
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