Pinot Grigio: Flipflop 2012 ($8)

A few weeks ago, my friend L and I went out to dinner to celebrate her college graduation. We chose a Thai restaurant that was BYOB; L said that she would bring some leftover wine that she wasn't planning on drinking. This was the wine:

"Drinkable."

The name of the manufacturer, as you can see, is "flipflop." Those are "Hawaiian"-patterned flipflops depicted on the label, because this brand is relaxed and refreshing. Please check out their website.

Just like the one in the picture, our bottle of wine had a yellow "Best Buy 2011" sticker from Wine Enthusiast Magazine, so we had very high hopes.

Before we tasted the wine, I realized that I didn't have anything to take notes on. I looked through my bag. The only thing I had was my planner, which had no blank pages at all. So, in order to preserve our thoughts, ideas, and feelings, I took notes in the planner's back pages. Specifically, my notes are scrawled on top of "Guide for Evaluating Web Sites," a handy guide to deciding whether or not you should use, say, "1001factsaboutdolphins.geocities.com" for your research paper.

So: the wine! L, confessing a bias towards white wine, because she "likes cold beverages," had a sip first. "Drinkable," she pronounced. According to my notes, I thought much the same: "bland in a good way," "not sour," "pleasant enough."

Our food came. We ate; we talked; we laughed; we talked about Taylor Swift's "22." Being in more of a beer mood that night, L declined any more of the wine, and focused on her beer, leaving me to the wine, all by myself. Eventually, I said, "I'm kind of tipsy."

"I don't mean to pressure you into drinking," she said.

This shocked me. "I don't think anyone has ever said that to me," I said. "Like literally. No one."

We were at the restaurant for three hours. At one point, the couple next to us moved tables. "Am I talking really loudly?" I asked.

"Whatever, you're saying a lot of really great things," L reassured me.

"You're so smart," I said.

"I am smart," L agreed. "I'm graduating."


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At the bottom of my notes, this quote (for I enclosed it in quotation marks) is written, with no attribution. I'm not sure who said it, or when, or why. But here it is:

"I'm sitting here with my arms crossed and holding this glass of wine and like, I don't know. I don't know."



VERDICT: Not too sour or two sweet. Buy!