Why anyone would question someone's credibility, or find humor, after they mention their sister's death is beyond me. What is March is telling the truth ... would that in any way bother you? Amazing the depths.

... correction, what IF March is telling the truth ...

A **sister** named Rocco?

I did not read all the replies but will answer the original question march123 asked. IMO there is no need to practice before your trip, unless you want to.

Once you are in Europe if you wish to try some local wine along with a meal, simply order one glass of the "house" wine (red, rose, or white). Or if there are two of you split a small carafe or pitcher. Nothing you need to know more than that.

If you are ordering water in a restaurant it is normal to order a bottle to share - either still/flat/without gas or fizzy/with gas are the usual choices.

Her sister, Ira, may have been known under a name that you don't remember.

Analyze the above sentence. Was I speaking about her sister Ira, that is a sister named "Ira"? Or was I addressing to Ira, in effect saying, "Hey Ira, her sister may've been known under some name you don't remember."

Same goes for the sister-comma-Rocco-comma-etc. sentence above. Get it?

Dear cmt,

No one named Rocco has replied to this message.

Therefore, "My sister, Rocco,.." can only refer to a sister **named** Rocco.

((I))

1. I don't know posters' real names. Someone who posted on the thread may be known to March as "Rocco."
2. A Susanne Rocco might post under the ID "Rocco" just as Mary Seigfried might post as "Seigfried."
3. If in doubt, no harm in taking it all at face value for purposes of discussion. Doesn't mean you're foolish if you do so.

Oh for goodness sake!!!!! This thread is really "drifting"...LOL First of all, no one ever takes the first drink with the idea of becoming a "drunk". It seems it's in the genes and you either are or you aren't. Plus, if you want to drink wine in Europe, drink wine in Europe. Order it, drink it, you like it or you don't. If you like it you may drink more, if you don't like it, try another or just don't drink it. Why is this all so complicated? No matter what you know or don't know about wine makes no difference...you buy some, you drink it, you like it, or you don't. Like I said in my other post, I just went to a wine tasting, and there were people buying wine at a particular winery that personally, I did not like and did not buy. Doesn't make it bad, doesn't make it good. It's not that difficult.

Ira et al.: Please read through the following thread, note posters' names and any references they make to spouses: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34508753

As I said, when in doubt, better to take things at face value. Doing so does not reflect a lack of intelligence.

Sorry, I skipped some of the middle of this thread, but somewhere someone said they were not looked down upon for ordering tap water. We were in London a couple or three years ago and stopped in this nice little pasta-style restaurant for dinner. I asked for "a glass of water", and the woman who seated us (and I think she may have been one of the owners) literally looked down her nose, lifted her eyebrows and asked, "Do you mean TAP water?" That was exactly what I meant, and what she eventually brought me. (Without ice, I might add!)

That being said, where is march123 going in Europe? Not all of Europe is full of wine drinkers. When I drink wine in Ireland, it is usually served out of a small screw-cap bottle. I only order it when I am tired of Smithwicks. Most of Ireland drinks other than wine, from what I have seen. France or Italy would be another story.

Don't start drinking wine to try to fit into someone else's culture!

I'm sorry for the confusion. My sister's screen name here was "rocco." She also went by "graziadei", our grandmother's maiden name). Here is part of her obituary, for those who doubt me:

"A memorial celebration will be Oct. 16 for XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, who died Sept. XX at home in Santa Cruz after an 18-month battle with cancer. She was 50.
Born in San Diego, she graduated from XXXXX XXXXXX High School in 1972. She attended UCLA, then transferred to UC Santa Cruz and graduated with a degree in biology in 19XX. After some international travel, she settled in Santa Cruz in the early 1980s.

As proprietor of XXXXXX XXXXXX, she combined her natural science background and artistic talent to create beautiful interpretive signs and graphics.
Her work is scattered around many natural spots in Northern and Central California — Monterey, Half Moon Bay, Sacramento, Palo Alto — but most extensively in Santa Cruz County: Neary Lagoon, Natural Bridges, Arana Gulch, Lighthouse Field, Wilder Ranch, Loch Lomond, Watsonville Wetlands, Pogonip and several Santa Cruz state parks.

She was an environmentalist and animal lover who enjoyed reading, gourmet cooking and fine wines, music, gardening and traveling. She liked to take long walks with her dog Rocco.
She was stubborn, willful, compassionate, generous, brave and beautiful."

At her memorial service, her husband had a huge poster made of her standing in the window of their room at the Del Senato, with a marvelous view of the Pantheon, taken on her farewell trip.

I do not take offense because I have been around here a while and know most of you posters' personalities. You have all been an inspiration and I am definitely going to Europe (25 years since my last visit.)

Thank you for all the advise about wine. I guess all I really wanted was to know the name of a wine I could go out of county and buy and bring home and sip in the privacy of my own home. My family (in California) really loves wine and I thought I would surprise them on my next visit by not making a face when I tasted some. And then I could actually order a glass in Italy next year. I have no intentions of becoming a hardcore drinker.

march123,
I'm so sorry about the loss of your sister. I remember her posts here on Fodors, and have looked back at some of them.
(by typing "rocco" in the search function)

It's such a loss for someone so vibrant to have died so young-- my condolences to you and your family.

Good luck with your wine tastings! It's hard to say if it will be something that you'll learn to appreciate or not, but it's worth a try, and I think it's great that you have an open mind about trying new things.

Dear March,

My apologies for any offense I may have caused with a flippant remark.

To respond to your wine question:

I suggest that you consult your CA relatives for suggestions as to what they like.

Where will you be going?

((I))

I also send my apologies and sympathies on the loss of your dear sister march123. Losing one so young and vibrant is extra sad.

No excuse of course, but I guess some of us have gotten a bit jaded due to some unpleasant trolls that keep posting here. A lesson to all of us not to just assume.

May I suggest a wine that may be a good one to start with. It is Prosecco. It is from the region of Veneto. It is a white wine, light and refresing. I think it might be easier to enjoy (at least for your first glass) then a red.

I am sorry that you are in a dry county and cannot buy any wine. Is there a county close to you that you could perhaps wine from?

Take care, and enjoy planning your trip to Italy. 25 years is too long to not visit Italy! ((*))

Sorry about the rudeness and the snort, march123. Chalk it up to a complete lack of class. Hope you're holding up okay. Your sister must have been an interesting and good person. Take care.

I apologize, too. I guess I was just taken aback by the concept of learning to for travel purposes and so I was overly suspicious.

I will tell you that I rarely drink (not out of any principled decision; I just don't like it that much) and have never been given any trouble about it on any of my trips to Europe -- and that includes Italy. In fact, I have an Italian friend whose family operates a winery and he doesn't like wine, either!

Make that "learning to drink for travel purposes...."

TravelsSmirking speaks of Lack of Class. Whatever, I am sure he is quite full of Class himself..or at least thinks so.
But back to drinking!
My husband thinks the wine tastings idea is great, you can learn and have sips and see what appeals to you.
I suggested Port and Kir (wine & cassis) because it is tasty and might appeal to a first time drinker.
Have you ever tried Champagne? Some people love it. All those bubbles~
Do let us know how it goes, there is a thread on the Other Topics forum called Wine-Os Only- read some of that, see if anything interests you~
My condolences on the loss of your sister, Scarlett ((F))

***UPDATE***

I told my husband about my plan to try some wine and he located a bottle of wine lying in a cabinet in the kitchen (shows how much I use my kitchen). He had bought it about 12 years ago before we were married and had forgotten about it. It cost $20.59 back then.

The label read:
1988 Spatlese
SCHLOSS GROENESTEYN
Rudesheimer Berg Rottland
Riesling
RHEINGAU

Last Saturday, after dinner, we got some cheese, sausage and crackers and opened that baby. It was very sweet and and after a couple of glasses, it just tasted like fruit juice! Before I knew it, we had drunk the whole bottle!

Sunday we traveled to a larger city and I thought I could buy some more wine. Now I know what blue laws are!

So my husband went on a short business trip this week and came back with 3 bottles of wine, 2 rieslings and 1 chardonnay. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm only going to try one glass a day from now on.

Thanks for all your suggestions. We spent some time looking at cellarnotes.net that Michel_Paris recommended. It was very helpful.

Mix dry white wine with sparkling water for a spritzer, add lemon slice.

suze, I do that on hot days as due to food allergies (corn) I cannot drink sodapop. It is fantastic!

Hi march,

You were very lucky with that bottle of wine.

LOL, that is great march!
We will all become drinking buddies before long!
I have only just begun drinking wine in the past couple of years..before that it was the occassional mixed drink, so wine is much more interesting and fun to learn about as you drink it :) Cheers ((D))

My friends like sweet German whites you can start there and watch what you eat with the wine it could counteract the taste of the wine.

I guess this question would be better posed on the US forum, but seeing the subject came up ... I'm curious about the existence of "dry" counties in the United States. How common are they, and are they mostly concentrated in particular areas such as parts of the South and Midwest? What exactly does it mean - is it simply that alcohol can't be sold in shops and restaurants, beer included? Would we risk incarceration by bringing a bottle of wine across a State line for furtive consumption in our motel room?

During our last visit to the US we covered a lot of ground but didn't encounter the problem, and as our next visit will concentrate on the northwest of the country I assume we won't meet up with any booze police. What about Utah, though?

March, didn't you learn anything about wines at the tastings you went to in October?

And why are you saying next time you want to surprise your family in California by drinking wine, when on another post you clearly stated you went to two tastings in California the previous weekend? Did the wine go to your head and you forget about it? Did you sneak out to those tastings and not tell them you were going? Did you go to the tastings and really not taste the wines? Or did you just get confused which screen name you were using when you were posting as the Alabama person instead of the California person? Inquiring minds want to know.

i don't drink and enjoyed italy quite a bit. like the others have said, i orderd bottle watered (carbonated or not). and it was just fine. in fact i don't remember being asked if i wanted anything to drink...i asked for it at all the restaurants i went to.

i didn't feel like i missed out on anything...A) it's a decision i'm happy about B) i wouldn't know the difference anyways C) i am who i am whether i'm home or abroad D) the italians don't care if u drink or not.

but at age 51, you must have had a very personal reason not to drink...and it must have been harder through high school and college if you weren't a drinker.

Neil,
I can only speak for Alabama. In dry counties no sale of alcoholic beverages is allowed. UNLESS a city within that county has voted to allow sales within the city. You can carry one case of beer and three quarts of liquor or wine into or through a dry county. And, yes, all alcoholic beverages purchased outside the state of Alabama are illegal inside the state. But the county sheriffs and state troopers don't set up border checks!

Neil - I also live in a dry county but the city is "wet". This is very common in the so called bible belt or south. Almost every year there are wet/dry votes in various counties/cities in the state. 60 of Kentucky's 120 counties are completely dry, 30 are wet(all type os alcohol sales allowed) and 16 are considered "moist"(limited sales).Some only allow restaurants to serve drinks not package sales. Kentucky doesn't allow any shipments of wine from outside of the state.

Yes, yes, you know, whatever you family situation is, you have come here to post as to what type of wine to drink to start with.
Now, let me see, you are 51, live in a dry jurisdiction, know how to use the internet....why did you not just type in the question to Google? They are probably only a few million responses to thousands of sites available on this issue.
Of course, I am sure that at age 51 you could surmise that drinking wine is all about personal experience.
Like many questions on this site, the ones that are extremely general seem to get many,many answers. Some posters seem to take great joy in seeing how many answers they can get to a given question. What is your next quest?

After reading through all this, am I to understand that march123 is not real? Several people point out other posts that contradict this one. What is the point of someone coming here and making all this up?

CalgirlSusan, kind of the same point that you are suddenly doing. Popping up all over the US Board and now the Europe Board with negative post regardless of the subject. Trolls are soooooo boring and pathetic.

You are starting to scare me now, LoveItaly. I've never been a victim of stalking before and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Could you leave me alone please? I've apologized over and over again about contradicting your statement. I'm willing now to agree that there is only one restaurant in all of San Francisco that has authentic Italian cooking. There now. Do you feel better? Can you leave me alone please?

NeilOz, I grew up in a dry county in Kentucky (Floyd Co) which is now a wet county. We used to have to drive to a neighboring county to buy alcohol, even beer. UNLESS you wanted to go to a bootlegger to buy it illegally & pay twice the price (and there were plenty back in the day).

march123, I have 2 suggestions for you: buy a copy of LonelyPlanet's World Food France guide, there are excellent suggestions for wine & aperitifs & digestifs in there & it explains them in detail and the areas they come from. Also, you can check out Bistros of Paris which makes wine recommendations for each restaurant such as light fruity Jura wines or fruity red St Emilions. What I like to do each trip is pick a wine that sounds interesting & buy that in each restaurant such as Sancerre which reminds me of Merlot - I find it to be rich red & a little dry & fruity (fruity drys I find to be more palatable). House wines tend to be fruitier so that may be more to your taste - get a glass of the house wine or a pichet. Hope that helps!

And my condolences to the loss of your sister! I am sure she is deeply missed.

To Patrick and other inquiring minds, here are the facts:

1. I did not drink at those wineries last October. If you read carefully, you will see that I never mentioned anything about drinking wine. Since I can't afford to travel much, I rarely get a chance to add something useful to travel threads. So, there was this thread about the cost of wine tastings and, well, what do you know? My sister (not "Rocco") insisted on stopping at wineries on our way from Santa Monica (my hometown) to Santa Cruz for "Rocco's" celebration of life and I had a tidbit I could add to a thread. At the time, I was not interested in learning to drink wine. Now I am.

2. I am 51, I drink an occasional beer when I'm out of town (people at church wouldn't understand) but just had never, ever applied myself to drinking wine. I also don't drink coffee or tea. Love water and milk.

3. I am a native Californian (graduated from UCLA). I have lived in Alabama for 19 years now. Being in a dry county does not bother me since I rarely drink. I go home to Santa Monica every year. All my family lives there (except 2 brothers in Hood River, OR).

4. I am desperate to go to Europe after traveling vicariously through all of you since I discovered these boards before registration (thank you "Rocco".) I want to go to Italy especially. I have not been to Europe since 1977.

5. I have been to 46 states but will add Vermont (#47) this summer because my husband has a conference in Philadelphia. Be prepared for my postings on the US board as I try to garner info about visiting Philly, Vermont, Boston and NY.

6. Now you know my whole life story. Love to all of you.

march123- a bit off topic but i think that's amazing you've been to 46 states! and vermont is one of my absolute favorite ones (lived in brattleboro for awhile) it's gorgeous- enjoy!

i stand by my wine spritzer suggestion above, just a bit of white wine, ice, lemon and seltzer (figure on skipping the ice once you're traveling, not so readily available).

This is the saddest thread! Poor March. Why does she have to explain her whole life to us? Have we become so eager to bag a troll that we can't be kind to a fellow poster? Please people, ignore posts you find lack credibility. Some of you are just making yourselves troll bait.

March, I hope you have a great trip to Europe, wine or no wine.

Thank you, Grasshopper, for five lines of complete sanity and decency.

I would simply find a great wine shop with knowledgeable staff and buy a mixed case of recommended under $10. bottles prior to your trip.
Wines from SW France, Spain, a few IT, Chile, Argentina, and Australia can be very good values.
Check the many FF threads for specifics.
M