Sweet Summer Wine

I'm declaring myself the Wine Goof because I am definitely not a wine aficionado. However, when I come across an inexpensive wine that I enjoy drinking, I'll pass it on to the rest of you.

I'm hoping you aren't a wine snob if you are reading this--I can only imagine the comments I'll get from the wine snobs. Actually, the comments might be fun.

I will also let you all know about the super crap wines I encounter. I tend to avoid boxes of wine, but who knows where my wino, I mean wine, travels will take me?

Here is a quick break down of my fingers-around-the-glass rating system:

• Five Fingers: Serve it to your neighbor who used to run a winery.
• Four Fingers: Go ahead and serve to friends and family as a decent table wine.
• Three Fingers: This is completely drinkable, but nothing to really brag about. Use caution when drinking, a common side effect of this wine is an extreme headache.
• Two Fingers: A mixer wine: you can handle it if you add some juice, or some other masking beverage, to it. Really, only drink it if you need a cheap buzz.
• One Finger: Your grandma is hopped up on painkillers, has no sense of taste, and partially blind? This is the wine for her!
• Zero Fingers: Don't even touch the container it comes in. Use extreme caution, this substance is flammable, and may detioriate any material in comes into contact with.

Basically, it's not a bad wine. I don't often drink white wines, but they appeal to me when the weather is scorching hot. This 2004 Riesling is fruity, hinting with peach, and best chilled (drinking it warm might be downright nasty).

It is definitely something that you can drink alone, but it would also be fun to add a frozen strawberry, or two, for more of a fruity kick.

Buyer Beware: If you have a fear of screw cap tops, this wine is not for you. In fact, I rarely buy wines that don't have a cork, but this one (at $2.99) is fine.

I'll give it Three Fingers.