koreans are the irish of asia. my family partly upholds this statement. my father is not a drinker. apparently, he's tried to drink and smoke in his youth, but his body just rejects the chemicals. my mother on the other hand, is my drinking buddy. starting in the second half of high school, mom owned a wine and liquor store. i initially had no interest in either. then, i went away to college. i remember the summer i spent at home with my mom. every night over the bottles of wine that my mom would get from the salesmen tried to persuade her to order, i got to know my mother. a few years ago, when the big '96 reds were released, i dated a guy who really introduced me to small-production, big-bodied, great wine... pride, spring mountain, robert craig, t-vine, and others. this is not to say that i can't drink 2 buck chuck. however, when i moved into my apartment last year, one of my first purchases was a small wine fridge from costco. wine i enjoy cocktails i imbibe current favorite: any zin standbys: hess select chardonnay ($9), any pepper wood grove red (zin, syrah, cab, cab franc) current favorites: stoli gimlet, standbys: raspberry stoli cosmopolitan, kettle one martini, up with olives recent tastes the latest and greatest

recent tastes
wine	comments
	stig brought this bottle of wine to willo's birthday dinner. it was mellow, yet had more body than i expected from a pinot. the five of us finished the first bottle before the food arrived; it was easy to drink. i liked it enough to research it a bit. it's actually reasonably priced (around $13) and relatively plentiful. i'll definitely pick up some in the future.
latest and greatest
what was it?	what's in it?	where do i get it?
the old havana	rum, orange juice, orange bitter, lime juice. shaken. strained. served in martini glass with sugared rim.	absinthe (hayes valley)
caphirinia	rum, sugar cane liquor, limes. shaken. served with rocks.	ramblas (mission)
kafir lime martini	kafir limes (duh), vodka. shaken. strained. served in martini glass with sugared rim.	the beach house (kauai)
jean benet ramsay	ginger ale and stoli vanilla. served with a crushed cherry, over ice in any available vessel.	argus (bernal/mission) created this variation on the ginger and vanilla, but you can get a g and v almost anywhere these days.