counterintuitive rewards program

as I count down the final seven weeks of my year without drinking, I'm going to try and post a bit more on the topic. After all, it was one of my main reasons for starting this weblog. So, upcoming topics in the next few weeks:

• why I should start drinking again (because I probably will)
• why I shouldn't start drinking again (I have pictures--it ain't always pretty)
• drinking dates I have set up (it seems that everyone I know wants me to start drinking again, and is planning to celebrate my return to inebriation)

and, my post for today: the Rewards Program. In early August I had the sudden realization that I should have set up little milestone rewards along the way for each month I wasn't drinking. Why hadn't I thought of this before??? Well, not wasting any time I decided that for every month leading up to the end of my year I would buy myself a nice bottle of wine. Yes, I realize the irony of buying yourself wine when you're celebrating not drinking. Yes, I still think it's an excellent idea. By Thanksgiving, I should have a small but potent selection of wine, where ordinarily I'm a buy-it-and-drink-it sort of person.

Since then, I've decided to have a theme of red wines from various countries. To summarize the previous purchases:

July: a Chianti Classico from Italy
August: a Rioja from Spain

and September's purchase is presented below: a 2000 Bordeaux from Chateau Larose-Trintaudon in the Haut-Medoc region.


any suggestions for October's purchase? I suppose I should go for something California, but I'm up for odd suggestions, too (Greece? Hungary? Eritrea?)