The Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget

I am not a crafty person, but one summer I decided to give a DIY project a go and put together a “wine bar” of sorts. It’s made out of an ikea shelf with eight squares available as shelves - two of those of which are reserved for wine. It’s not quite the wine collection that I had imagined to keep on display as it never manages to stay stocked, and today was the day I realized I needed to do just that with my folks coming in town for spring holiday. 

We became wine-o’s over the last decade and our tastes for what we like have definitely grown. When we first got into it, we were totally fine with the “two-buck-chuck” and Yellow Tail brands. Today, I pass by the shelves packed with those as though they we had never dared to try them. I blame this evolution on wine tastings and being exposed to unbelievable red blends over time. Somewhere along this journey, I realized what I liked and what I didn’t, and rarely do I select something that will just “do” unless I absolutely have to. When I walked through the doors at Binny’s, the store I usually go to in search of great deals on my favorite wines, I arrived to find almost nothing on sale. And, yeah Binny’s, you’re not fooling me by marking Estancia on what you call “sale” for $11.99 when I’ve seen it for $9 there. I admit, I have a wine problem, but I’m a girl with as my mom says a champagne taste on a beer budget. I’d rather spend money on an amazing bottle of wine to have with dinner than by shoes. I realize it’s not a “real” holiday season right now, but I figured since everyone got their fix with green beer over St. Patrick’s day that it’d be a no brainer to have some of those usual suspects marked down as I’ve seen them before. I grabbed a cart from the rack and strolled through the aisles. In each row, I was greeted by an attendant asking “Are you finding everything alright, miss?” To which I replied, “I’m just looking around.” I kept to myself the ...ahem, looking for my sales - where are they!? and picked out a few varietals and thought, that’ll do... that’ll do (insert voice from the Babe the Pig movie).