Thank you, Odee, I will try Kroger. As my primary reason for drinking wine is Alzheimer's prevention (both my grandmas suffered from this disease in the years preceding their demise) and only secondary, taste, I think Kroger will do. I have never heard of more expensive wine being better for one's health.

I totally agree with you about alcohol consumption by teens in parental guidance and presence. Much better than on their own in college!

I was once carded for buying COOKING wine (food cooked with wine turns non-alcoholic, mind you) for making a dessert while visibly pregnant with my SECOND child. So in California it is legal for me to drive and have children but not drink? As in "drinking requires more responsibility than parenting and driving on the highways"? Well, it does not happen anymore and should it happen now, I would feel flattered but back then I was not old enough to start feeling flattered about such things and was outright annoyed, because I had dashed into my local grocery store with a credit card in my pocket, without my purse, and could not prove being of age. The bottle had to go back on the shelf.

The long article about psychosocial benefits of alcohol, link above, reports that "cultures that successfully inculcate moderate drinking practices (such as the Jewish and Chinese) matter-of-factly accept youthful drinking as an opportunity for learning accepted social behavior - a model of socialization recommended by Lowe and Foxcroft (1993)."