The Wine Curmudgeon

Regional wine: The Rodney Dangerfield of the business

I'm in Illinois, so that means I'm going to try and buy some Illinois wine. It's one of those things that the Wine Curmudgeon does. So I go to one high-end grocery store in a high-end suburb. Nope, no Illinois wine (and the guy behind the counter is even a little surly about it, so the Wine Curmudgeon gives him the evil eye). I got to another high-end grocery store in another high-end suburb. Nope, no Illinois wine.

Is Illinois wine any good? I don't know. I can't find any to buy so I can taste it.

Tuesday tidbits 36

• Cheap wine stumps the pros: Sometimes, all the Wine Curmudgeon can do is smile. The San Francisco Chronicle runs an annual feature in which three sommeliers have to buy seven bottles of wine for $70 – and suffer in the attempt. “"This is harder than I thought," said one. Of course it is. As the Wine Curmudgeon always says, “Anyone can buy a bottle of expensive wine. What’s tougher – and more fun – is to buy a good bottle of cheap wine.” Among the choices was our long-time favorite, Toad' Hollow’s pinot noir rose.

• Aussie exports decrease: The weak dollar has done its job on Australian wine exports, which are down 12 percent his year – the first decline in 14 years. Shipments to the U.S. fell 18 percent. The value of the Australian dollar has increased almost 25 percent since September.

• Sunday blue laws: It may be the 21st century, but 15 states still have laws restricting the sale of wine on Sunday. Why do these laws still exist? No one is quite sure, say several people quoted in the article. But it does reveal one intriguing piece of information: A recent paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics found that in states where blue laws have been repealed, there has been a 15 percent decline in attendance among weekly churchgoers, along with a nearly 25 percent drop in donations.

Technorati Tags: cheap wine,Australian wine exports,blue laws,wine sales on Sunday

Wine scores: Still more work to do

At a wine function the other day, I met two intelligent, well-read wine drinkers. This was a big-deal tasting, and they wouldn’t have been invited unless they knew what they were doing. I introduced myself, and I told them what I did for a living. One of the duo asked me how I scored wine. I told her that I didn’t use scores. She was quite surprised. How do you evaluate wine if you don’t use scores? she asked.

It was another Wine Curmudgeon moment.

Kendall-Jackson: Solid wines, but little respect

Talk to a reasonably well educated wine drinker –  or even a wine professional – and ask them what they think of Kendall-Jackson. “Oh, it’s OK, but. …” they’ll say.

And the but? Usually something along the lines of K-J is OK for grocery store wine, or that people who like it don’t know a lot about wine, or it’s not my style of wine – anything to point out the difference between themselves and people who like Kendall-Jackson.

Well, those buts are mostly wrong.

Asus Eee PC 900: Oh, baby

The best laptop that the Wine Curmudgeon ever used was a TRS-80 model 100, a Radio Shack product that is usually regarded as the world’s first laptop. It was awesome – a little more than three pounds, a 300-baud modem, and a faux leather case. In the 1980s, I lugged it to football games, bike races, and city council meetings, where I would write the story, hook the modem up to a phone jack, and send it to the paper by hitting a row of buttons located just above the keyboard.

I loved that machine, which was affectionately known as a Trash 80. It belonged to the late and lamented Dallas Times Herald, and I still have the instructions for using it (written by the great Kevin Edwards, a sportswriter turned cyber type who went on to fame and fortune at the Washington Post).

Since then, I have owned a couple of laptops, none of which I much cared for. In fact, I haven’t had one for almost a decade. They were too heavy, too slow, too expensive and too irritating. I made do with an early handheld, an HP Jornada 720, which had a downsized QWERTY keyboard and synced with my desktop (though the modem never really worked).

But all that has changed.

Wine of the week: 2006 Louis Latour Macon-Lugny Les Genievres

It's not often that one can find an $18 wine that will improve with age. These days, spend less than $30, and you'd better hurry up and drink it. It's as fruity and as interesting as it's going to get.

The Latour (about $18), though, is a welcome exception. It’s white Burgundy, which means chardonnay, and since it’s Macon, it means it wasn't aged in oak.

This wine is perfectly acceptable now, and the Wine Curmudgeon drank it last weekend (with mushroom and artichoke crepes – why are crepes so little appreciated?). It's still a little tight, with some spiciness typical of young white Burgundies. But let it sit for a year or two, and it will open up, becoming a fuller, richer, more complex wine. In fact, I’ll probably buy another bottle and let it sit for 12 months to see just what happens.

Technorati Tags: white wine,chardonnay,white Burgundy,Macon,Louis Latour

Riesling: It's OK to drink sweet wine

Sweet wine is much maligned – so much so, in fact, that wine snobs don’t like to admit they drink it. Instead, when they’re forced to quaff something sweet, they call if off dry.

This not fair. Yes, some sweet wine doesn’t taste a whole lot better than Coke laced with grain alcohol, but that’s no reason ignore it. And it’s not a sign of wine weakness to drink sweet wine. German rieslings, most of which are sweet, are some of the best-made wines in the world. They can age for decades, just like red wines from France and California, and they provide a wonderful sweet, lemony, stony flavor that can be addictive. Plus, they’re a lot less costly than other high end stuff.

What to look for in a sweet wine? Stick to white, because most sweet reds aren’t very interesting. Explore German riesling, especially those with the term auslese or spatlese on the label. They denote degrees of sweetness (the latter is less sweet than the former) and are only used on the best quality German wine.

Tuesday tidbits 35

• So you want to own a winery? Then be prepared to pony up piles and piles of cash. Forbes takes a look what it takes to go into the wine business, and the verdict is millions of dollars. Land prices, legal and business red tape, and the vagaries of farming call come into play. Says one successful executive turned wine entrepreneur: “Before I knew it, I was into it for $15 million, It was like the blink of an eye. I didn't see it coming at all."

• French court says no to St. Emilion classification: The court said that the wine classification system in the region on Bordeaux’s right bank was flawed, and that it couldn’t be used to rate wine by quality. The irony here is that the St. Emilion system is infinitely more sensible than the more famous system used on the left bank in the Medoc. In St. Emilion, the ratings are reviewed every 10 years. In the Medoc, they’ve changed just once since 1855. But, as I used to tell my Cordon Bleu students, that’s the way they do it in France.

• Southwest wine winners: Colorado’s Guy Drew Vineyards won a gold and the best red designation for its 2004, while New Mexico Wineries won a gold and the best white accolade for its 2007 San Felipe Moscato. They topped the winners at the Southwest  Wine Competition, part of the Toast of Taos. I was impressed with a sherry-like wine from Oklahoma’s Deer Creek called Trois Elise, which won a silver.

Technorati Tags: St. Emilion classification,wine news,Southwest Wine Competition,owning a winery

Wine review: Drylands Sauvignon Blanc 2007

Drylands is a New Zealand sauvignon blanc (about $12) for people who don’t want too much of the citrusy, grapefruit flavor that has made this style of white wine famous. The grapefruit is there, of course, but it isn’t quite as big, and there is also a welcome dollop of pineapple in the middle. Plus, it has a more interesting finish than other wines at this price, which don’t offer much more than the first burst of grapefruit.

Highly recommended for price and quality. Serve the Drylands with grilled shrimp, raw oysters or steamed mussels (using the wine to steam the mussels).

Technorati Tags: Drylands,sauvignon blanc,New Zealand wine,white wine,inexpensive wine

Wine trends: What we're drinking and why, part III

This is the third of a three-part series about wine consumption in the United States. Part I is here; part II is here.

Obviously, wine consumption in the U.S. differs by region. People in New York are going to drink differently from people in Alabama who are going to drink differently from people in Oregon. But those consumption patterns are even more different than you might imagine.

That was perhaps the most intriguing bit of information in he 2007 Nielsen Beverage Alcohol Overview. It’s just not different – it’s quite a bit different, and there doesn’t seem to be any real reason. In the 52 weeks ended Jan. 12, 2008, for example, wine sales increased 15.6 percent in Dallas and decreased 6.3 percent in Birmingham, Ala.