I like cheap wine. There, I said it.

I never used to drink red wine. In fact, I didn’t like any kind of wine unless it was mixed with Sprite. To think the Bartles & Jaymes people and the California Cooler people picked up on such a simple mix. Ugh.

I got over my aversion to red wine in college. Specifically my sophomore year, at a party at my apartment. One of the guys brought over a gallon – or jug – of red wine. It was around 11:30 pm, we were out of the brothers, (Jim Beam and Jack Daniels I suspect) and we lived in a dry county. (Can you believe that we still have “dry counties” in the US?) BTW, I did finally move far, far away from there.

We were playing Quarters, or was it Thumper…whatever, we were having fun. I was losing. Maybe on purpose, okay - probably on purpose. My friend broke out the red wine jug and I held out my arm with my red plastic cup. “Filler up, please,” I said. One loss led to another loss and eventually, I was liking the red wine.

The next morning, I woke up with a massive headache. Being the stubborn woman (in the making) that I was – determined to go out again that night, I went through the drive-thru like any college-aged person at the time, and soaked up my hangover with grease. I totally miss Jack-in-the-Box.

From that point on, I slowly learned to like cheap wine. I’ll admit it. The night of Quarters led to Livingston and the Livingston led to anything made with grapes. I visited France when I was 18. Touring the Loire Valley, I decided that if I were going to act like a grown up, grown-ups needed to drink good wine. I tried it – and kind of liked it, okay, really liked it - but OMG, too much money to spend on a buzz. I still didn’t buy it – literally and figuratively. Looking back, I guess I couldn’t have “legally purchased it,” but I digress. After college, I moved on to the less cheap, more inexpensive wines. Frontera, Woodbridge, a slight relapse back to Carlo Rossi when I was broke. I was on a Wine Roll. An inexpensive, but -hey at least it has a cork in it- kind of roll.

In my adulthood, I have tried many wines. I have figured out that I do really like the dark reds. Especially the Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons. I like them all very well.
I traveled back to France – which by the way – does not sell cabs. I learned that the hard way. The closest thing is Burgundy’s. I actually emailed my husband from there, asking him to find a damn wine that I could ask for that resembled a cab. Seriously, Cabernet Sauvignon, is French, non? He emailed me back “No. Can. Do.” Apparently, the cabernet grapes are indigenous to California. “Plew, plew, plew...Whatever, I emailed!” I had to take what I could get. I learned to like the Burgundy’s while I was there. Glass, by glass, carafe, by carafe...

So, here we are in 2009. What do I drink now? I love Trader Joe’s and I love their $3 Buck Chuck, which when I started drinking it, was Less Than A Buck Chuck. Also, I’ve found a certain fondness for some California boxed wines – specifically Cabernet Sauvignon. I freaking love the boxed wines and their genius little spouts. 4 bottles in a box, no wine opener required, it’s not heavy like the bottled wine – schlepping it up my 3 flights of stairs in the city. Also the boxed wines are so easy to bring to a party and, here’s the best part...the box can then be taken back if no one has finished it! I only recommend the “take back” move if your with close friends or relatives…or the party has a really, really drunk host/hostess.

Also, now that I think about it, boxed wines are more “green” than bottled wines. Since a box is the equivalent of 4 bottles, it weighs less, making the transportation costs cheaper. More liters on a truck, less gas, less emissions, the box is recyclable (I know glass is too), and once opened, the wine will last 3 weeks. Wait, sorry, that goes in the awesomeness of the boxed wine category, not the eco-friendly category. Oh, and also, I have never had the problem of having to wait 3 weeks to finish opened wine.

I’m convinced. I love cheap wine – actually, I’m trying to train myself. Inexpensive wine, not cheap. There is a difference. I would hope that in my 25 years of taste testing, I would now know the difference. The Europeans drink bottled wines that are twist off. And I see more and more nice priced wines here in the US that are twist off now. I’m not sure if they drink the boxed wine in Europe, but I’m fine drinking it. I’m not European.

There, I’ve said it. I really do enjoy expensive wines, but deep down I’m a cheap - I mean inexpensive wine kind of gal. So, if I’m at your house and you run out of the Chimney Rock, we can break into the box of wine that I probably brought – but if it isn’t finished by the end of the night, don’t count on waking up with it still there. It's somewhere in Chicago on the third floor.