OPINION | SPIRITS: You can have a good time with it without spending a lot

(Photo by Philip Martin)

I've been on a red wine kick since 1985.

I remember the Big Bang. It occurred on a rickety third-floor balcony of Café Sbisa in New Orleans, when I took a sip of a premier Grand Cru Médoc that, though it was beyond my means at the time, I had ordered...