Salmonella from red wine is very disturbing! That said, I do believe that wine has an obligation to be red. A really nice cheap Merlot that I couldn't recommend more is called "Papi" from Chile. It costs $6 a bottle and in my neighborhood if you order a case they'll throw in 2 free bottles and deliver it. 2009 is a better year than 2010 if you can find it, but 2010 is very good just the same.
Sipping red wine is a perfect adjunct to vapor - it's a perfect compliment of flavor and effects.
Years ago I bought a very cool cork screw used on Ebay - it's called "screw pull." It's simple and makes the cork removal almost effortless.
I keep bottles stored in a dark cool cabinet and after I open a bottle I'll pour it into the glasses for an hour or two to breathe rather than just let it sit in the bottle open. It aerates better that way.
A friend of mine writes an interesting, informative and funny blog on red wine, it's called "Red Wine Haiku." Worth searching out....
Generally I don't drink wine with vapor - I do so about once a week; that's enough for me and makes it a special treat. I find it very easy - too easy in fact - to finish a full bottle in one sitting; before I know it the bottle is empty. A friend will have one glass and I'll finish the bottle. After all, vapor makes you thirsty. So yeah, just once a week.
Two more things and then I'll shut up.
I tend to prefer, on a nightly basis, drinking herbal tea with vapor. My current fave is Gotu Kola. It's an herb from Africa; it's delicious, it produces a similar sedative effect like wine and it's actually good for you and has beneficial properties regarding brain function. Delicious with a little bit of stevia for sweetener. I buy the herb loose; it's very inexpensive. I use a French Press to separate the boiling water from the herb - it's quite good.
Also, this is a once in a while thing, but I have something called "mama juana." It's special roots and herbs that sit in rum for about a month or so - it's super strong but the effect is quite amazing. It almost has a medicinal quality to it and that's the actual purpose of it. Once you're done with the bottle you refill it back up with rum and let it sit again, for a good month. Supposedly it lasts forever.
This is what it looks like -
OPA!
) . A slippery slope it is to love wine. I'm into Spanish reds these days, and I have yet to find a Walla Walla, WA wine that I don't like. They make GREAT wines in the Pac NW.