Red Red Wine...

In the late 60s, Jimi Hendrix recorded an album with the Band of Gypsys. The amazing album has a song on it that Clapton and Winwood recently covered, called "Changes".

The first lyric is "My mind is goin through them changes, I think I'm goin outta my mind..."

And that thought lingers with me as I look back on today's visit to the Cloverleaf Wine Shop in Royal Oak.

But that's not truly the beginning of this story. It really starts a couple of years ago.

I am perpetually trying to improve myself. Tweaking and changing, trying to become a better person. Part of becoming a better person is trying to live long enough to achieve betterdom. One night, I decided to choke down some red wine. After all, it's been lauded as a health enhancer, and I am all for enhancing my health.

A day or two later, I thought I'd choke down red wine again.

And eventually, something crazy happened.

Actually, two somethings crazy happened:

1) I got better results from my doctor.
2) The red wine eventually started tasting pretty okay.

So... on trips to Costco, I started trying different red wines, and actually found one in particular that I liked.

Now we fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Sheryl and I went to Royal Oak for dinner, and stopped by the Cloverleaf - a small, locally run wine and crafted beer shop.

Scott, an employee there, greeted us, and offered to help us find something or answer any questions. By now, I had grown weary of simply looking for bottles of red wine with cool labels. I wanted to gain a little knowledge, and understand a little more about what the hell I was drinking.

Scott took some time with us, and supplied a few suggestions based on my weak explanation of what I thought I liked in a wine. He explained flavors, grapes, growing locations, costs and the like. Most of which went over my head.

And we walked out of there with five bottles of wine. Most of which were in the price range that I felt comfortable paying for.

As soon as we got home, I popped open a bottle that Scott highly recommended - Tres Picos. Sheryl and I both loved it. In fact, I thought it was the best damn wine I'd ever had...

It turned out that I really enjoyed three of the five bottles, and "merely enjoyed" the other two.

Fast forward again to my visit to the Cloverleaf today.

I walked in and started looking at bottles of wine. I still wasn't sure of what I was looking for, but I knew the general area to look in, to find something I might like. Scott walked by.

"Dude," I said, "you were dead nuts on the Tres Picos. It was the best wine I'd ever tasted."

If you think about this, this is something that everyone wants to hear about their job. This is the ultimate compliment (aside from giving someone a raise...), no?

So Scott and I talked about wine. He made more recommendations, and I started to sort of kinda understand what he was talking about.

"My mind is goin through them changes, I think I'm goin outta my mind..."

Mr. Beer Drinker. Mr. Tequila Taster. Mr. Rum Drinker, Vodka Drinker, Margarita Drinker... talking wine???!!!

Yes, 10 years ago, I would have never seen it coming. 10 years ago, I would have never seen marriage coming, either. 10 years ago, I would have never seen cancer coming.

It's all about growth, I guess. It's all about betterdom. The more you learn about things you don't know, the more learned you become, no?

So here I am, eager to taste the five new bottles of wine that I got earlier today.

Crazy.

Changes.