A toast, to wine!
Growing up, I had very little experience with alcohol, much less wine. Most people I know, their families had wine on holidays (and let them try), or had a beer every once in a while. For me, certain members of my family had a drink of choice, but only drank on very rare occasions, and almost never in front of me. My dad might have a scotch with a friend in the living, but I wasn’t supposed to go in there while they were drinking. The only experience I had was one aunt who would come in for Christmas once a year. She would bring several bottles of wine and store them in my grandma’s fridge while my grandma complained. I grew up thinking alcohol must be really terrible if every adult I knew hid their drinking habits or were shamed for them. In high school, I was never really interested in drinking, much less getting drunk. My first three semesters of college, I saw my friends’ motivations and grades fall because of partying and drinking. I thought it was better off that I wasn’t in