National Drink Wine Day

My calendar informs me that today is National Drink Wine Day. I wonder which industry thought that up. Every day is National Drink Beer Day. Hallmark doesn't have cards yet, but I'm sure they're working on maudlin poems for it. What rhymes with shiraz?

The cocktail of the day is a red wine cooler: red wine, lemon lime soda, and a lemon twist. the recipe calls for a dry red wine. I know what to buy for a dry white, but what's a dry red? Not a pink Zin, which is what my sister thinks of as a red wine. Most wines of any color sold around here are pretty sweet to my taste. My personal wine adviser Kim suggested a pinot noir, so I went with that as the path of least resistance.

This calendar has recipes for some screwy stuff in the middle of winter, drinks like one back at the first of January that called for fresh peaches and this one that I'd think of as summer drinks. Cooler = summer; I'm cool enough saving on the gas bill.

How was it? A good wine doesn't need to be mixed with Sprite. Winter or summer. Though I have drunk beer with lemonade in Munich on a hot summer day, but I was young then. I tried a second glass, this time eyeballing the proportions. My bottle of Cointreau was still sitting out from the other day, so I stirred in a capful. Not bad, sort of an easy sangria. This batch might not be bad on a June afternoon, though maybe something a little lighter than a pinot noir (a real Zin?) might be better. Maybe warming it up would make it a winter drink. But that would use gas. Drink it wearing a sweater.