My first sip of wine

I held my glass in hand looking around the room to see how everyone else was holding the long stemmed crystal. Realizing that I was holding the wrong part of the glass, I quickly changed positions so that the stem rested gently between my fingers and thumb. Lifting the rim of the glass to my lips, I took one last look at the others to see how they were able to lift the glass gracefully to their lips, sip the substance, and remove the glass from their mouth as though it were a natural thing like breathing.

As the glass neared my mouth, I noted a smell familiar to me. It reminded me of the hunting grounds after a rain; fragrant, earthy, with just a hint of jasmine. The first touch of the liquid to my lips was shocking. It almost burned but was cool and the lightness of the liquid which seemed to evaporate from my mouth before I could swallow it was curious to me. It took a great effort to swallow the mouthful of liquid, and when I did, I had to stop breathing for the time it took for the wine to move from my mouth to the pit of my stomach. There it lingered before the burning stopped completely and transformed into a glow of warmth which spread from the center of my being to my limbs.

As I noted the change in my temperature, I also noted a lingering bitterness on my tongue like berries which had not had time to ripen on the vine before being picked for a tart. The aroma and flavor seemed to compel me to take another sip, this time taking care not to take too much into my mouth, I noted that on the second try of the wine the burning sensation seemed to be lessened and replaced with a stronger bitter fruit flavor in the end. I could get use to this.