I’m a firm believer that the best years of your life are 28 – 32. High School can be great for some, and terrible for others. Mine was a medium-well experience. College is a blast, but you think you’re a lot smarter than you really are. Sure, the drinking, complete lack of responsibilities and general self-indulgence is enviable, but you’re still pretty much clueless about how things really work. Then one day you graduate and are immediately thrown into the real world with no idea what you want to do, no money, no benefits, no job, and the constant feeling of underachievement. Remind me again how my class in 18th Century Literature is going to help me survive…
Once you hit the golden years (28 – 32) most of us have a job, which usually involves a cubicle, and a little cash to spend. You’ve spent five years navigating the real world, miraculously landed on your feet, and feel like you have a general sense of how things work. So, you have this “real adult” credibility, but can still let loose and get after it once in a while. And you can wander into the liquor store after work and buy a $20 bottle of wine so you can unwind after a long day at the office… which I decided to do.
2005 vintage Merlot from Geyser Peak Winery
This week I kept the Merlot train going with the purchase of a 2005 vintage from Geyser Peak Winery. I got home from work, put my son to bed around 7pm, and plopped myself on the couch with the bottle and a glass. Now my wife wasn’t getting home from work until later, so I was actually drinking alone. Drinking alone is:
- Cool in high school
- Lame in college
- Strong indicator of an alcohol problem in years immediately following college
- Acceptable in the golden years
I was excited about this purchase, not because I had heard of Geyser Peak Winery before, because I hadn’t, but because I just really needed a drink. However, I found the Geyser Peak to be a bit underwhelming. It wasn’t nearly as good as the Markham, and I found the Red Rock to be more enjoyable as well. I could really taste the smokiness of this Merlot, which may have made it more suitable for casual sipping, but I’m a man so I was drinking.
Rating: 2 ½ grapes – rating based on the fact that it was a bit too smoky, and my excitement level was brought down to Earth after the first sip.