Good Morning!

I was walking through the grocery store and saw a magazine called San Antonio Woman and grabbed it. I guess my curiosity got the best of me. It is filled with places to shop for high end clothes and jewelery but it also had an article called Want to Learn about Wine. As I read about some wine shops and a little about Texas wines, it mentioned a couple of wine bars I had not heard of….soooo of course I had to try them out for myself.

This past week was my birthday and I felt no reason to celebrate turning 49…OUCH…but my friends were not having any part of my “I am getting old” pity party and forced me to pick a place to go. I picked Wine 101 in Old Town Helotes. It is a super cute old village with artists and shops and when we pulled up to Wine 101, I see that musicians were setting up outside and there are little intimate seating areas all over the lawn. The place looks like a cute little house transformed into a wine speakeasy.

We went inside and the wine list was filled with some great California and French wines. I was surprised I did not see many Texas wines on the list. Each room of the “house” was set up with little couches and coffee tables and you could have a large party in some of the rooms and some of the rooms were small and more for couples wanting some privacy. My friend ordered a bottle of Twomey Merlot and the massive cheese plate.

We ended up with the Twomey Pinot Noir, which was fine but we totally forgot to check out the bottle when our server James brought it to the couch. No problem, we loved the wine and started having some fun and decompressing. There was a couple on the couch across the small room from us and we started chatting about wine and life and before we knew it our new best friends “Howie and Alissa” engaged us in there great story of love, life and living to the fullest.

Howie is retired Navy and his wife is about to retire from the Army. They met in Spain and became engaged in Greece and they have lived all over the world. They have been in San Antonio about a year and they have about 1 more year and they are thinking they will live in Germany or Puget Sound when they finally retire. They talked about all the places, the wines, the friends and family they have met all over the world.

Silly me, I was complaining about turning 49 and I was caught up in what I think I was missing and this energy filled and love filled couple easily filled me with a reminder that everyday I need to live fully and enjoy the journey. Again my dear friend wine, introduced me to people who have forever impacted my attitude and life without them ever knowing what they have changed in my mind. This just fortifies the fact that wine is way more than just a really great beverage or a mood enhancer!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi