Wine o'clock

I used to drink wine every day, and looked forward to having dinner with red wine, especially after a busy day at work. Now, I rarely have more than 4 or 5 units a week. If I open a bottle when I have company, any wine left (and there never used to be ANY left) goes in a casserole, gravy or risotto. There are 10 or 11 bottles of wine in my kitchen. I just seem to have to out of the habit over the last year, as I was on standby to dash out and drive a few miles when my sister was very ill. Now you've reminded me Sel I will have a couple of glasses of wine this evening, and fall promptly asleep in my chair as a result!

I don't I'm afraid but then I have had to deal with alcoholism in the family for many many years (my then husband and a nephew).. I gave up drinking any alcohol at 31 for what to me were very good reasons. In moderation drinking at home is fine but too often I think people actually kid themselves about the amount they consume... My experiences have obviously coloured my opinion..

I drink very little now but do enjoy pink champagne,as Grannylin will confirm
If DH is having a good wine I will have a few drops in a glass to smell and get the taste and that is enough for me. I think as you get older your taste in wine changes.

I look forward to a glass of wine most evenings but it seems to be touch and go which one will give me a whacking headache.Perhaps I should either give it up or copy harri and just drink champagne

I have three quarters of a glass of red wine, topped up with lemonade, with my dinner each evening. It tastes a bit like sangria. I just seem to have lost the taste for a lot of alcohol. If I am having lunch in a restaurant, I ask for a jug of water so I can dilute my glass of wine.
My grandson was amazed at a recent family wedding - he was sitting next to me at the reception and joked that he had better get another couple of bottles of wine for 'Nan' - I had one glass. I did drink a great deal in my 40's and 50's and ruined many days by having hideous hangovers. Never again. I am very embarrassed to remember some of the stupid things I did when I was drunk.
I certainly would never drink and drive - which is another bad thing I did in the 'bad old days'. I can't risk losing my licence, apart from the danger to myself and others.
I have found I can enjoy myself just as much in company without needing a lot of alcohol.

That's my favourite time of the day too Sel.

I see myself as an educated responsible adult (well sometimes, anyway) and perfectly capable of making my own decisions regarding food, drink and exercise.

No wonder she has an early sundowner. She goes to bed at 8 o clock!

Who has an early sundowner and goes to bed at 8 ?

When my children were little I always looked forward to a glass of wine once they were in bed, on the basis that I needed it. There was a time when my husband and I would polish of a bottle of wine a night between us, we now rarely touch it during the week, a glass or two at the week-end and that's about it, I think you become aware that it doesn't always make you feel that good.

Liz Hodgkinson who wrote the article in the Mail, Nonu

Thank you Merlot ,

I only have a glass or two on the weekend and never if I am driving, different thing altogether when I meet other GNetters for Lunch

I read the article in the DM too and related! DH & I share a bottle most nights and thoroughly enjoy it. A perk of later years in my opinion - living life backwards in some respects as I didn't drink at all till my 50s. Have yet to move on to drugs but hey ho

glass Shhhh…

I rarely drink wine nowadays. DH stopped about two years ago after he was ill. but fortunately he had never been a big drinker anyway.

So I am now left to a bottle to myself if I want any. What a good thing screw caps are. Red wine seems to give me a dreadful headache.
I do have the occasional beer, Peroni being a favourite. otherwise its a rare G&T or as a more regular nightcap a sherry glass of damson gin or two.

Drinking alone is not fun really.
I remember in the early 70s in a grotty and cold bedsit in Crouch End when us four flatmates used to go out several nights a week to the local pub to keep warm and we woud drink about 4pints of beer each YUK!

In the early 70s we lived in a small but very lively village in Norfolk. The landlord of the local pub sold cheap sherry for 50p if you took your own empty Carafino bottle (the one with the two finger holes either side of the neck). It was all any of us could afford given the power cuts/three day week etc. Our social life depended on that evil stuff but despite the whole village suffering the same hangovers it didn't do us any lasting harm

kitty and jopa I guess we're the only wine lovers then...I'm beginning to feel guilty but not too much

No you're not, Sel

merlot phew! I was feeling slightly degenerate

We enjoy wine too. I have three nights a week alcohol free, but the other nights we have two glasses each, a white or rose while cooking and then a red. I stick to fewer than ten units a week and if that means I die at 85 and not 90 then fine. Our French doctor thinks this extremely moderate.

Tonight's no alcohol night in our house. Usually because we've run out after the week-end

I was talking to a friend about retirement and remarked that Friday nights still feel like the end of a working week. She agreed it's the anticipation of an early sundowner wot does it

Same here, Merlot. No alcohol, Mon, Tue or Thu. The weekend is still the weekend and Wednesday we go to the market for fish, which, like pasta, is something which goes best with a glass of wine, IMHO.

I prefer a lager shandy with curry or chilli, and on a very hot day after a long walk.