I had the opportunity this past weekend to have a reunion with someone I hadn't seen since high school. For those of you keeping score at home, that makes it just shy of 30 years ago. I know that some people are a little shy about appearing on the Internet, so I'll just call him "Bob" to help protect his anonymity.

"Bob" and I happened to reconnect on Facebook and we figured out that that since he had to be in the area attending to a family matter, that it would present an excellent opportunity for us to make acquaintance with each other again. "Bob" had suggested either a Civil War battlefield or a winery as a place for our meeting. I don't know about y'all (I can't help but adopt some Southern speak) but I personally find relaxing at a winery a better choice for a conversation than trekking across a battlefield. With that in mind, I selected Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane, VA as a nice place to meet up. Well let me rephrase that, Barrel Oak Winery selected itself as the place for our visit.

The weekend prior to "Bob" coming out, Ms Cocktail and I decided to scout the area looking for a place that met our criteria for a meet up. There were some very simple standards that must be met 1) it had to be close to our house and the town "Bob" was staying at, 2) it had to be Corvette friendly, 3) it had to serve wine. Items 1 and 3 would be easy to find but item 2 can sometimes be tricky. Both "Bob" and myself own Corvettes. Mine is from 2004 and is the last of the C5 model. "Bob's" is a bit more recent C6 model. I wasn't sure if "Bob" would be driving his Corvette down for this trip, but I had to make sure that the road up to the winery would allow the Corvettes without undue stress to either the car or the driver. Since wineries and their associated tasting rooms tend to be located on farms, it is always best to check out the approach routes before taking a low slung sports car on up there. Even though the tasting room for Barrel Oak sits up on a hill with a quarter mile dirt road to travel, the road is well graded and and once you arrive at the top, the views of the foothills of the Shenandoah mountains are just lovely. Case closed.

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You and I may or may not like the same things. Some people like the color blue, some the color red. Some people like to straighten out the twisties in a sports car, some like the convenience of being able to get four kids and all their associated gear in a minivan. Some people like really oaky wines, some people do not. This is not a bad thing. It makes for diversity in the types of products produced and gives us many choices. It also means that just because someone says that a wine is really good you have to like it. Ooooo, Wine Spectator gives this California Chardonnay a 95! So what? It's so steeped in oak that only a beaver could love it!

This point was best proved to me by a wine rep from Mondavi that was doing a tasting for a wine club I happened to be visiting. The rep brought along seven Chardonnays ranging from only stainless steel to 12 months in American Oak, with a couple including malolactic fermentation (this is a secondary fermentation that will give a buttery flavor to the wine for those that aren't familiar). We did a blind tasting of these wines and were asked to select our favorite. We were then told that we were going to get to play wine maker and that we were going to make a blend of wines, trying to come up with one that we liked even better than our favorite. The rep then asked us which we liked better, the original unblended wine or our special blend. Once this was identified, the rep told us that that was our favorite style of Chardonnay and that for general drinking purposes, we should look to buy that style of wine from now on. The most surprising aspect of this is that there were almost no duplicates as to what constituted everyone's favorite style of Chardonnay.

What this really means is that there is no wrong wine to drink. Sometimes we get caught up in the intricacies of wine and forget that it's quite ok to just drink what we like. If you like Chards with no oak at all and with only stainless steel fermentation, that's great! You know what style of wine you prefer. If you like big, bold oaky Cabernets, that too is great. Have at it. Just remember to take some time to savor the wine.

Let's face it, nothing runs the gamut of cheap to "are you f'ing kidding me" expensive quite the way wine does. I'm here to tell you one of the most important rules of wine. Price does not equal quality. Don't get me wrong, there are some mind blowing wines that may cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars that are worth every penny. However for the Average Joe, walking into the store and dropping $30 or $40 on a bottle of wine does not in any way guarantee that you are going to get something that is better than the $10 bottle you normally drink.

Let me say this again. Price does not guarantee quality.

The cost of a bottle of wine is based on a whole series of factors including but not limited to, the cost of the land the grapes were grown on, the cost of materials to grow the grapes, the cost of the equipment to produce the wine, the cost of labor to produce the wine, the cost to get the wine to market, taxes all along the way, the reputation of the winery or the wine maker and what someone thinks some schlep is willing to pay for it. You'll notice that most of the factors are associated with the cost to produce a wine. That cost varies from region to region, year to year, winery to winery and wine to wine within a winery's labels. This is what constitutes the economy of wine and the resulting variation in price.

So the next time you hear someone trying to act all snooty and say "I won't drink any wine that costs under $20" just smile to yourself because you know that person knows nothing about the price of wine.

So, I was working on the computer yesterday morning when I get the urgent calll from my wife. She said that I just had to go and check out this dream job she heard about on the radio and apply for it. So I hunted down the url and found this: A Really Goode Job. Well come to find out, there are only two days left to submit an application. I promptly call in favors I didn't want to and cajoled my twin Jenny (not my real twin, I'm Jimmy Cocktail, she's Jenny Cocktail, we are forever linked by our passionate names) to grab her digital camcorder and to head on over here because for this I had to make a video.

On short notice and with very little prep, here's what we came up with. There are a ton of things (lighting, shot framing, audio, etc.) that I want to fix on this but given the time crunch, it's all goode.