High school, I guess. My parents aren't wine drinkers, so I rarely saw it as a kid.

At some Jewish holiday though I can't remember which one. Then again I do not really know if you would count Manischewitz as wine...well wine with sugar added in maybe.

My Mom took me along to a public wine tasting and didn't tell anyone I was only 16.

Family meals.

I was allowed a glass of wine while out to dinner with older friends of the family when i was - 12? 14?

Either it was crap wine, or i really didn't appreciate it, because i didn't try it again until well into my 20s.

Wine mixed with water at family means at around 5 or so, undiluted, for the purpose of tasting seriously, around 8, with my grandfather and oenologist great uncles.

Thanksgiving when I was 12-ish

Does Boone's Strawberry Hill at a high school party count? Don't judge me we had already downed all the Pabst and Old Milwaukee!

When I was 18 on an airplane flying from Copenhagen to Moscow so I was legal at the time.

I was around 7 years old. My family was on a camping trip and I had grape juice in a can. When I ran out my folks let me have their wine. I think my mom expected me not to like it but I did.

rpm wrote:Wine mixed with water at family means at around 5 or so, undiluted, for the purpose of tasting seriously, around 8, with my grandfather and oenologist great uncles.

I had a similar experience, when I was 7 we went to Italy to visit my grandparents and my nonno (grandfather) would put a little wine and a lot of water for me to drink at the afternoon meal. The wine was basic Italian cheap red bulk wine, about 20 cents a liter at the local wine shop, bring your own bottle to fill. I didn't start to get serious about wine until many years later. Of course my nonno worked at the post office and he wasn't an oenologist, just a civil servant.

silveri wrote:At some Jewish holiday though I can't remember which one. Then again I do not really know if you would count Manischewitz as wine...well wine with sugar added in maybe.

Same here, but at least I had the advantage of a grandfather who made his own wine. It was probably at this time of year - happy new year.

When I was little my Mother would drink wine, I would wait for her to leave the room. Then quickly drink all of the glass, and sit looking at the TV waiting for her return. "Who drank my wine?!" she'd cry out. Who indeed...

Shortly after I got to college.

At family events and gatherings since around 13.

First time I had wine was at a wedding. Was never a beer drinker growing up. I took me about 3 glasses to fall in love.

I've started a new wine site called www.bottleofvino.com. Posts will be all over the map, but always relating to wine. Check it out.

When I was stationed in Germany. I didn't like beer at the time; however, Germany changed my mind on that.

silveri wrote:At some Jewish holiday though I can't remember which one. Then again I do not really know if you would count Manischewitz as wine...well wine with sugar added in maybe.

You mean 8 days old?

At a vineyard in Italy

silveri wrote:At some Jewish holiday though I can't remember which one. Then again I do not really know if you would count Manischewitz as wine...well wine with sugar added in maybe.

Passover is very centered around Manischewitz - you get to drink after all sorts of prayer segments. That's definitely where I got my first taste of the sugary wine-like substance...probably around the age of 15 the elders let me switch from grape juice to wine.

I was an altar boy, we snuck drinks all the time.

I lived in Spain for a while when I was young and the laws are different over there, so I had wine pretty young. You know, foreign customs and being a good guest, and all that.

When my dad would give me tastes of his.

Never.

When I was about 15, I spent the night with a friend. We knew that some guys from school were camping down in the woods behind her house. We walked down there & they had a few bottles of alcohol (obviously raided their parents stash). One guy had a bottle of Boone's Farm that he swiped from his older sister. I thought it was the most delicious drink I'd ever had. LOL! We were having fun until Karen started feeling sick.
*Side note: A guy name Steve got sick on his sleeping bag & stained it. The next day when he went home, he was trying to wash the sleeping bag out in the bathtub. His mother came in and according to his brother & the other guys, she kept going on & on about the stain on his sleeping bag. 'Stain' became his nickname since there were so many Steve's. That was back around 1978. We all still refer to him as 'Stain'. He has a grandson & his brother has been trying to get the kid to call him Papa Stain. LOL! Poor ole Steve.

jediokie wrote:Does Boone's Strawberry Hill at a high school party count? Don't judge me we had already downed all the Pabst and Old Milwaukee!

I've had it many times as a teen! Funny, when I was 16, I could walk in a couple of stores in town & buy it no questions asked. Strawberry Hill was my favorite.

Morgan David, under age of ten, believe mom might wanted me to go to sleep a bit earlier.