Cookies, I'm coming into this line rather late, so haven't read all the entries. I grew up in a culture where we had sips of various alcoholic beverages early in life. The wine thing? I think most younger people I've known like light, sweet wines. I'm no expert, and don't have a discerning taste for it (liking very dry reds in the winter, whites in the summer). BUT when I was a young woman living in DC I had a couple of friends who wanted to be able to have a glass of wine at an important banquet and learn to taste and what to like. So we'd go to supper at some half-way nice restaurant (our budgets would not cover expensive!) and I'd get them going. Start with a light, sweet-ish (not super sweet) wine, and gradually "work up" to dryer, sometimes heavier, reds. (not in one night, mind you!). Blue Nun, Lambrusco, and Rose (I cannot remember, what were their names .... Oh, Lancers and there was another) were the fun "starter" wines. To this day I'll occaisionally buy one of the roses for a picnic! We had a lot of fun, and my gal pals (I was a whopping 23, but was ancient to my friends, and vastly more experienced) felt much more comfortable when thrown into social circumstances beyond their ken.