A couple of weekends ago my Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law came to visit.

My Long-Suffering Hubby, Sully, and his brother Mike were going to spend some quality time at the Byron Nelson Golf Tournament following Phil Mickelson around while Laura and I spent quality time in a “sports-free” zone drinking by the pool.

After the “boys” left to go watch men hit balls with sticks, Laura and I decided that noon was a good time to start into our wine.

My Sis-in-Law is a very smart person and only brought low alcohol wine: Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling at 11% alc (http://www.ste-michelle.com/) and Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio at 12.5% alc (http://www.eccodomani.com/). I provided a Domaine De Nizas Rose’ at 13.5% alc (http://www.domaine-de-nizas.com/en/) …and I think the Rose’ was too high in alcohol. I really like to keep below 13% when I’m drinking all day (I know, I sound like a lush, but remember Twisted Peeps, I’m a “professional” LOL!!!) That .5% makes a difference. Just to let you know, wineries can have a 1.5% variance when telling you the alcohol level in their wine; provided that the wine is below 14%. When wine gets above 14% then it jumps into a whole other category and you can only have a variance of .1%.

So we iced down the wines in the fabulous rolling cooler, along with veggies, hummus, Havarti cheese, crackers and water. By the way, I’m a big believer in drinking a glass of water for every glass of wine. Being dehydrated is not good and will add to your misery if you over indulge, plus the water helps slow you down in your alcohol consumption, which is always a good thing.

As a side note: All 3 of those wine I mentioned were great with our food.

Laura and I were having a lovely time. She had her Kindle and I had my laptop and by 3 o’clock we were in the pool. We had finished the Riesling and were half way into the Pinot Grigio. I opened the Rose’ and had a glass, but Laura didn’t care for it as much as the Pinot Grigio. So I kind of had the Rose’ to myself and she finished what little was left of the Pinot Grigio.

This is where things for me got interesting….

The boys got home around 4 and found us giggling and talking very lively about our day. I think they were on to us, especially when I texted Sully earlier and said “Laura’s in the pool…by choice…I didn’t push her in, LOL!”. Bless our husband’s hearts…they sat out with us and listened to us and we actually listened about their day too!

We all started getting hungry, so Sully ordered pizza and my Bro-in-Law asked if I had any Pinot Noir? Has a cat got fur? Of course I do! I opened a Laetitia Mount Eden Clone Pinot Noir (http://www.laetitiawine.com/). I had to see what it was like with our pepperoni pizza….it was good because the alcohol level of the wine was 14.1%, which means this Pinot is very full bodied and could stand up to something rich and zesty. However, the alcohol level was not good for me. That one glass sent me buzzing and I had a hard time making complete sentences. I basically shut down and became politely silent and decided doing the dishes and drinking water was in the best interest for me and everyone.

After everything was put away,we all decided to retire by the pool and gaze at the stars. I noticed that my dear Sis-in-Law had not changed…

She could still make complete sentences, have a lively conversation, ask questions and her eyes were not droopy! Damn it! It dawned on me that she only had about a bottle and a half at a low alcohol level, where I had about 2 bottles at a higher alc level. Like I said before, Laura is smart. Thank goodness I stuck to water the rest of the evening because I woke up the next morning feeling ok…not fabulous…but ok…

So Twisted Peeps, this is a word of warning…

Keep your alcohol levels low, drink lots of water and make sure whomever you are drinking with…drinks as much as you do, so they can’t say “I told you so”.

Take Care and Seriously Drink with Care.

Cheers Y’all