Dr Vino's wine blog

The Financial Times reported this morning that Chirac wants a summit with Bush to help mend relations. This couldn’t come at a better time for the Bordeaux wine makers.

Export data out today reveal that while Bordeaux wine exports fell in volume and in value across the board, the US saw the sharpest decline with a
staggering 35% deline in volume and a 59% decline in value.

Yikes. Millennium hangover. It’s definitely time for a summit — and some PR?!

Several AARP-age men and women in robes are all sitting in a room talking about wine. No, this is not the start of a bad joke. This is the scene at the US Supreme Court on December 7, 2004.

Juanita Swedenburg, a former member of the Foreign Service and a Daughter of the American Revolution, owns a micro-winery in the rolling hills of Virginia horse country. Her case, Swedenburg v. Kelly, has now arrived at the highest court in the land. She and her lawyers successfully argued before an Appeals court that wine consumers in New York were disserved because they were legally barred from purchasing her Burgundy-style whites and reds directly from the winery. The same could be said of consumers in Texas, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania since almost three dozen states restrict the direct shipping of wine from wineries to consumers.

Forget Bordeaux 2000, this wine case has become the most essential case for wine consumers in decades. At stake is whether consumers living in the long list of states that limit direct wine sales can start to purchase wines directly from wineries out of state. Yes, America may be one big market when it comes to buying books or DVDs, but when it comes to wine, it is more like 50 sovereign states, each with its own rules.

As most American wine consumers eventually discover, the way that we get our wine involves not just a producer and retailer but also a middleman known as a distributor or a wholesaler. These intermediaries can play a useful or helpful role in bringing wine to the consumer. The only exception is that if they don’t play a helpful role, they can still exploit their position since it is legally protected.

That means that American consumers generally pay more for wine than they would without the intervention of a distributor. For a striking example of this, consider the example of the celebrated “Two Buck Chuck,” aka Charles Shaw. The producer, Bronco Wine Co. arranged an exclusive retail agreement with Trader Joe’s grocery stores with a retail price of $2 within California where no distributor is needed. But every other state requires distributor intervention even though this arrangement is between a large producer and a large retailer. The result for consumers is often Three Buck Chuck. A distributor gets a near 50% mark-up (allowing something for transport) for simply having a license. That is disservice to the consumer.

Further, as consolidation has occurred among the distributors, they have gotten bigger and as a result often don’t have room for the small producer. That means that the range of choices for a given consumer may be limited to only those wineries with large productions and diverse portfolios. The wines of niche producers may not appear at all in many states.

Hence buying directly from the producer is important. For consumers residing in the three dozen states where shipments are not legal, it means a greater range and perhaps lower prices for wine. And for the small wineries like Swedenburg’s, now numbering over 2000 in all 50 states, it expands their market and their margins considerably.

Why is it so hard to ship a bottle of wine in the US? Consumers can ironically blame the 21st Amendment of the Constitution, the one that repealed Prohibition in 1933. At the time of repeal, economic arguments were strong to help reinvigorate the economy in the depths of the Great Depression. But the political strength of the Dry movement had not been completely eroded despite the blatant failure of the Prohibition itself. Thus the 21st Amendment emerged as a compromise: Prohibition would be repealed at the federal level but states could maintain control of the production and distribution and sale of alcohol within their borders. As a result, the last state-level Prohibition persisted into the 1960s.

Yet the legacy of Prohibition still lingers and Swedenburg v. Kelly could go a good distance toward removing this residue. Framed in the terms of removing—or not—the legacy of Prohibition, it is not surprising that this battle is playing out largely on the political right.

This battle over interstate shipping has thus become a battle royale for conservatives, pitting the free traders against the social conservatives. The stakes (and the fees!) are high with Kenneth Starr (he’s baaack) and Robert Bork leading prestigious legal teams for both sides in the Constitutional struggle over the Interstate Commerce Clause versus the 21st Amendment. However, to call the opponents of free trade social conservatives is to ascribe to them the moral legacy of Prohibition, which by now is a mere fig leaf.

Those opposed to free trade represent a coalition of strange bedfellows that could qualify as “Baptists and bootleggers” given that those two groups supported Prohibition. The “Baptists,” shorthand for religious conservatives who thought alcohol of any kind to be a demon spirit, sought to keep alcohol out of their county or state. They allied with local producers of alcohol, “bootleggers,” who also wanted to limit alcohol imports but only to in the name of preventing competition and protecting their market.

In today’s alliance, the goal of those against direct shipments is entirely financial with some window dressing about underage drinking. (The Federal Trade Commission argued in a report last year that that the economic gain from direct shipping is great for consumers and states can protect minors in other ways than an outright ban.) The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association is decanting vast sums of money into the defense. But several Nobel Prize winning economists including George Akerlof have filed an amicus brief arguing that these distributors are simply fighting to protect their monopolistic (or, actually, oligopolistic) position. The other party protecting a monopoly is the set of 35 states fighting against potential loss in tax revenue. These are powerful adversaries with entrenched interests in maintaining the status quo.

Because the actual question before the Court is relatively narrow, claims that the three tier system (producer-distributor-retailer) will be shattered are overblown. The question before the Court in December is: “Does a state’s regulatory scheme that permits in-state wineries directly to ship alcohol to consumers but restricts the ability of out-of-state wineries to do so violate the dormant Commerce Clause in light of Section Two of the 21st Amendment.” This is the key aspect of the New York law, which allows in-state wineries to ship to consumers while out of state ones are not permitted.

If the Court does rule in favor of greater free trade, it will be an important step toward eroding Prohibition’s legacy. If the case fails, the free trade advocates, notably the Institute for Justice and the Coalition for Free Trade, will try to chaperon more cases with broader implications through the system.

How the Court will rule (before its term is up in June) is hard to predict given that the traditional right-left dichotomy does not apply. We can but hope that the men and women in the black robes are also fans of fruits of the vine—and maybe even want to be on some winery mailing lists!

Resources on direct shipping:

Institute for Justice
Coalition for Free Trade
Free the Grapes
Wine Institute background

NYTimes op/ed

NYTimes story
Detroit Free Press story
MSN story
MSN: flouting the rules
CNN story

photo credit: IFJ.
Follow-up articles:
Arguments portend legal blessing, NYTimes
Winemakers got a sympathetic hearing, Washington Post

Justices grill attorneys on 2 states’ shipping restrictions for vintners, SFChronicle

In vino gravitas, Slate

State wineries are hoping to toast a major windfall, Seattle PI
Supreme Court Weighs Restrictions on Interstate Wine Sales , NPR‘s Nina Totenberg

The more you know about a given subject, the easier it is to pick out flaws in a given movie. Anyone familiar with Chicago could have noticed that the main characters of When Harry Met Sally were driving on the wrong side of town when they left the University of Chicago for New York. Similarly, chess players may have found flaws with Searching for Bobby Fischer. Or drag racers with 2 Fast, 2 Furious.

That’s why I was surprised to find fewer blatant flaws in Alexander Payne’s new wine-drenched movie, Sideways, than there are curves in a Rabbit wine opener. The movie has rightfully received high praise from movie critics including a composite score of 94 on Metacritic (harder than a Parker 94, I might add). And though there’s talk of Oscar nominations, we’ll have to see if members of the Academy can stomach such a full-bodied story even if it has a good finish.
lush country

The best thing about the movie from a wine geek’s perspective is that it will bring (hopefully lots) of viewers in touch with wine culture. The rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley make those who haven’t been there want to go check it out. And the number of fine wines consumed in the film would give anyone unfamiliar with the wines of the area a great list of wines to try. But beyond the cliché of wine and beautiful scenery, the movie deftly blends wine and humor, two elements that are not blended enough in wine talk. During my showing, the audience roared with laughter when the wine geek character refused to make his friend happy on date night saying, “If anybody orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any F***ing Merlot!” Merlot as a laugh line on the silver screen. How great.

Virginia Madsen’s character has a radiant paean to wine: she leans forward in her chair, has a soft light on her face and proceeds to share her passion for wine, how it is expressive of the place from which it came, how the tastes move her, and how it changes over time in the glass and in the bottle. Honestly, any wine marketing budget for TV should just clip this soliloquy since it will intrigue and possibly convert the most stubborn of beer drinkers.

Another good thing about the movie is that although it makes wine alluring, it is fundamentally a movie about two buddies and wine serves as a backdrop for their hedonistic week and a vocabulary for talking about their problems. Since it is not a movie only about wine, such as the documentary Mondovino that aired at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and since it is such a good, if dark, story with terrific acting, it is bound to find an audience that is more broad than simply those who pay extra for first class delivery of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

But there were some aspects of the movie that made me cringe. The wine geek in the movie, Miles (Paul Giamatti), is helpful in wine education when he tells his buddy Jack (Thomas Haden Church) that the 1992 Byron sparkling wine is made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes since champagne drinkers don’t often inquire about grape varietals. But Miles does wine appreciation no favors when he pretentiously trots out all sorts of strange aromas in a Sanford rosé—presumably their Vin Gris—at their first winery stop. (Honestly, who ever got “soupçons of asparagus” aromas in a rosé? Or “flutters of Edam cheese”?) Jack by contrast is so easy to please that almost every winery visit has him throwing back his glass and saying “tastes good to me!” Blending Jack’s enthusiasm and Miles’ knowledge but without stereotypical wine-geek condescension would have been the best depiction for Americans to see since wine is so often thought of as part of an elite lifestyle. But, hey, at least it was Paul Giamatti saying these lines and not Tom Cruise, which would have caused wine tasters from Barossa to Bordeaux to lose more than a wine sample into the spit bucket.
And then there is the quantity! Wine, and most of it excellent quality, is not only consumed in tasting rooms, bars and restaurants, but also behind the wheel, in bed, and out of a Styrofoam cup in a diner! Clearly Miles is an alcoholic as well as a knowledgeable wine enthusiast. As David Edelstein writes in his review of the movie on Slate, this is probably the first movie about out-of-control epicureans. While it is great to have a discussion of Pinot Noir or Vouvray or to see lots of spectacular wines consumed (since too often great wines just sit around as display items), it is poignant to see them often merely guzzled. But that is what gives the movie its dramatic verve after all.

One specific item wine buffs may want to trot out when seeing or talking about the film is the fact that at one point, Miles disparages Cabernet Franc for making insipid wines. But it later emerges that the gem of his humble collection is a 1961 Cheval Blanc. How ironic, given that Cabernet Franc makes up two-thirds of the wine. And the other third? Merlot. Maybe the wine consultant to the film missed that. Or perhaps the writer left it in for connoisseurs to speculate that French provenance of wine makes it appealing. After all, the eyes of this Pinot Noir enthusiast never light up more than at the mention the prized Burgundy DRC Richebourg (100% Pinot Noir) although, sadly, no vintage is given.

Net-net this is an excellent movie. We can but hope that it is the first of many movies that will incorporate wine so prominently and so well. Sideways would be a great break from the relatives over the holidays for readers of this site who clearly already appreciate wine and humor. And as with most Dr. Vino picks, the movie can be enjoyed for under $10.

Click here for a list of wines and wineries in Sideways

The automobile industry does it. The airline industry does it too. American wine importers need to use currency hedging to prevent price rises and protect their profits.

Porsche, the luxury auto maker, reported a rise in profits for the first-half of their fiscal year. While this alone raised eyebrows because of global economic sluggishness, the real surprise was that there was any profit at all for the German company since just about half of its sales came from the US market. After all, the dollar’s sharp decline against the euro should have eaten most of the profits. But it did not. Why?

Management predicted the dollar decline and bought a currency hedge through 2006-7. This hedge is not an ornament of the manicured lawn at the Stuttgart HQ, but rather a financial strategy that limits the risk of currency fluctuations. The hedging program saved the corporation’s profits—and protected the leather-loafered American consumer from having to pay higher prices for the product.

Hedging is common in industries with volatile markets. Continental Airlines’ recent profits were hurt because they did not hedge their fuel costs the way most airlines do. Starbucks hedges the risk of a coffee price rise. Some heating oil companies even offer consumers the right to lock in their winter fuel bill at summer prices.

Hedges, once the exclusive domain of investment bankers, have now gone mainstream. Hedging provides a firm the opportunity to manage risk, often at a reasonable price (and there are even some “zero cost” options). In the wine industry, if American importers anticipate a decline in the dollar, which would raise their costs of buying wine overseas, they can buy the foreign currency at today’s prices in what is called the spot market. But that would tie up a lot of capital to simply buy, say, one million euros today. A lower cost strategy is to buy cheap options on one million euros at today’s prices. This provides the importer insurance against a decline of the dollar. And a similar strategy can even be set up to protect against a rise in the dollar too.

Wine needs currency hedging more than other consumer products.
Car producers can hedge their currency risk by moving production into the consuming countries as BMW did by opening a plant in South Carolina. But wine producers cannot shift production. Wine from Burgundy cannot be produced in Bangalore. That makes wine extremely vulnerable to currency fluctuations.

As the dollar has dropped sharply over the past two years, particularly against the euro and the Australian dollar (see chart below), the two main currencies of American wine imports, wine consumers have had to suffer a rise in wine prices on the retailers’ shelves.
Wine from Burgundy cannot be produced in Bangalore.

Futures for the wines of the Bordeaux 2003 vintage have more than doubled from the prior year for many of the top chateaus. Granted, the extreme heat of the growing season led to some rave reviews for the vintage. But even other, more humble wines from other region of the euro-zone that used to sell for under $10 now are pushing $13.

Passing the cost of currency fluctuations on to the consumer is but one strategy for an importer. One importer told me that his sales had doubled recently while his profits remained flat because he refused to raise prices to the consumer. Instead of simply buying the currency in the spot market, just think how much profit he could have made with a hedging program! He could even have lowered prices while his competitors raised them.

Wine consumers are already accustomed to producer greed driving up prices. The financial bumbling of importers should not further add to the tab. American wine importers would do well to seize this current pullback in the dollar to purchase some protection against another run on the dollar. (With large deficits in trade and the federal budget, it’s not too difficult to imagine the dollar losing ground again.) That way squeezing or squabbling with producers about price can be avoided and the price can remain stable to the consumer. Then the saved profits could help the importer’s bottom line—or even be passed on to the consumer in the form of lower prices!

FX rates at publication (8/24/04)
euro/dollar: 1.2099
US dollar/Australian dollar: 1.4156

image sources:
1) Porsche
2) www.n-tv.de/5204475.html
3) & 4) http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/plot.html

French wines have dropped to third place in the American market. What can be done about it? Providing more information on the back label would be a good start.

As if it weren’t hard enough to remember the difference between a Pouilly-Fuissé and a Pouilly-Fumé, consider keeping the Cotes Duras apart from the Cotes de Jura.

Such are the pitfalls of the French appellation system for the American consumer. Appellation wines, also known as appellation d’origine controllée (AOC), account for half of the wines produced in France today, including almost all the top quality wines. Throw in the other categories that use geographical indications (e.g. vin de pays) and then consumers have to further distinguish the Cotes de Toul from the Cotes de Thau and the Cotes de Tarn.

The trouble with geographical indications is that once the hallowed grounds at the top of the hierarchy such as Margaux and Champagne are left behind, the course becomes much more difficult for the consumer to navigate, which often penalizes out-of-the way and good value producers. If you find the system confusing, you are in good company.

“There are so many appellations that I don’t even know them all,” said Michel Rolland at a recent panel at the Vinexpo 2004 trade show in Chicago. Indeed, if this “flying winemaker” who consults at wineries from Napa to Argentina finds the French system confusing, then how about the average American consumer?

Enter the kangaroo. Australian wines have leap-frogged France in the US market based on strong marketing, brands, and varietals such as Shiraz and Chardonnay on the label. Yellow Tail is a case in point. With an indigenous art depiction of a kangaroo on the label, flashy colors, and a price tag of around $5 a bottle, consumers have snapped up the stuff making it the most successful wine product launch in history. Four million cases can’t be wrong, eh?

But France is not going to have as consolidated a wine industry as Australia any time soon. In Bordeaux alone there are 12,000 producers and that number is down about 50% from a decade ago. Indeed, about one wine producer closes in Bordeaux every day. But that will still take a long time to reach the Australian levels and would require a major overhaul of agricultural policy.

So what about better label art or even names that are more memorable to English speakers? Robert Parker, the world’s foremost wine critic, ruled out witty names in his participation on the same panel at Vinexpo. “Gimmicky names aren’t the answer: ’Fat Bastard’ or the ’Pope’s Nose’ should be avoided,” he said.

What the French do need is more information on the label. Parker suggested that the American consumer, who buys most wine at supermarkets, needs at least the name of the grape varietal to accompany the place name of the appellation. However, such action contravenes the appellation rules. So put the varietal information on the importers label on the back, Parker suggested. (That might also help diminish the obligatory US government warning on the back too, he added.)
Parker stated that the appellation rules are overly confining for French producers. But this stands in sharp contrast to the recent trend toward more appellations d’origine. Clearly the producers on the ground, who set the appellation rules anyway, see something positive in the system as the amount of acreage under appellation has increased almost four-fold over the past 30 years (see chart).

Given their popularity with producers, François Loos, French trade minister, told the press at the Vinexpo conference that France was committed to preserving geographical indications in ongoing trade talks. That being the case, doesn’t putting varietal names on the back label represent a middle ground?

Yes it does and more importers should take up this task. In fact, why not design a back label that is super informative with acidity and sugar levels, an indication of when to drink the wine at its peak, a tidbit about the winery, and what types of food pairing would be good? At least the consumer would then have too much information—that he or she knows how to understand and digest—rather than too little.

Wouldn’t the American consumer then have an easier time picking a wine off the shelf? Maybe that Pouilly-Fuissé would be appealing with its 100% Chardonnay aged for 3 months in French oak barrels, with medium acidity levels, low residual sugar and goes great with lobster. Or perhaps the Pouilly-Fumé is just right with 100% unoaked Sauvignon Blanc and crisp acidity levels that goes well with a salad on the deck? Providing more information would help make American consumers make more accurate choices. We might even learn more about the appellations themselves!

As Parker said, “I couldn’t imagine a day without French wine. I mean that quite literally.” Wouldn’t the French be happy if all Americans could say that?

***

UPDATE 7/22: through a stroke of luck, a prescient call, or eerie power that I exert over the French wine industry, grape varietals will soon be allowed on the FRONT labels! See story.

With so many wines hard to find, why do it?

Bob in Minneapolis faithfully prints out the Dr. Vino lists of ten wines under $10 and brings them to his local store. With almost the regularity of the lists, I get an email from Bob to the effect of “why the heck can’t I find any of these?”

Many wine consumers have surely had a similar experience when reading a write-up of a great sounding wine in a wine newsletter or magazine only to call the local shop and find the wine is not available. More than many other pleasurable consumer products, it seems, wine can come with its own disappointments in simply tracking it down. It’s often a lot easier to find a limited edition book or the latest Louis Vuitton handbag than it is to find a wine.

This begs a couple of questions: Why is it so hard to find wine picks in the US? And why bother even making wine recommendations for a national audience?

Clearly supply and demand play a key role to explaining why it is hard to find some wines. A supermarket wine manager often faces a choice among 25,000 wines to stock. And for the more creative wine shop manager the choice is even greater with new producers emerging in exciting corners of the wine world every year. Thus tough competition for shelf space means that a manager may choose not to stock some lesser known or smaller production wines.

Further, many good wines have limited supply. Some of these are limited production from the boutique wineries of Napa. But some good, inexpensive wines are also limited, particularly ones imported from small producers overseas.

High demand also means that good wines, particularly good value wines, often fly off the shelves. Influential critics (the initials RP and WS leap to mind) are an important part of sorting through the rubble but these picks then create demand.

But beyond supply and demand, which affect wine consumers around the world, the American market has the idiosyncrasies of the states. The uneven repeal of Prohibition means that each state really acts like a sovereign state with rules on “importing” wine (even if that it is from remote locales such as California). Since this effectively divides the country into 50 markets, it is no surprise that the distributors (and thus consumers) in smaller states cannot get the attention of producers and importers, especially if the production is at all limited or in high demand.

So why make recommendations at all? There are a few good reasons.

Even if consumers can’t actually try a certain wine, it is at least reassuring that a great wine is being made-whether it is exquisite or simply an exquisite value. Reading a Parker review of Screaming Eagle (500 cases production and $250+ per bottle) is about as close to fun as most wine drinkers will get to this wine. Or reading a Dr. Vino review of the succulent Higueruela wine that sells for around $7 may frustrate bargain hounds like Bob who can’t find it. Knowing might be nice, but drinking is better.

In order to connect consumers with good wines, I provide information on the winery (if domestic) or the wine’s importer (if from overseas). Importers are a good proxy for quality since an importer’s taste permeates the entire portfolio of wines he or she has available. Further, if you like a wine review, then you can contact the importer and find out if it is available in your state or town—or pressure them to make it available if it is not.

For those consumers who live in limited wine markets, there may be the opportunity to ship or travel. Retailers often can ship wine to more states than producers based on the logic that it has cleared the distributor channel somewhere. And what trip to New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles is complete for the wine geek without a trip to a local wine shop? Although security measures post 9/11 restrict carry-on luggage on air travel, there’s always the trunk of the car…

Reviewing wines that sound attractive but are difficult to find also has the advantage of recognizing quality producers and importers. Starting demand at the bottom, repeated consumer inquiries at the local shop may lead to repeated calls to the distributor who then might gain access to certain wines.

In the end, the best wine picks may be local ones since if the critic actually bought them in the local market, then there’s a better chance that you can find them there too—as long as you can beat your neighbor to the store.

Hefty red

Vinedos de El Seque, Alicante, 2003, $9.79
Find this wine
Alicante is more known for the beach life and golf courses than the wine. But Artadi, the respected wine producer from the Rioja, is setting out make value-conscious enthusiasts look twice at the region with this wine. Juan-Carlos Lopez de la Call, the owner of Artadi, purchased the old estate a few years ago mainly for its old vines and his renovations are bearing fruit. The Monastrell (Mouvèdre) grape gives this wine a dark color and a full bodied quality with notes of leather, blackberry and tar with a pleasant finish. If only more top Spanish producers would provide US consumers such an innovative way to maintain good values in face of the rising euro. Eric Solomon Selections, importer.

Crisp whites

Alamos, Viognier, 2003. $9. Find this wine Viognier, the fickle white grape at its most expressive in the Rhone’s Condrieu, has become a jet setter recently popping up in California, Australia, and now Argentina. The adopted homes of the grape have yet to capture the excellence and concentration of Condrieu and many have yielded uneven results at

best. But this offering from the high-altitude (5,000 ft) vineyards
of Catena, the steady Mendoza producer, represents at least a good
value. Notes of peach and flowers prevail and the wine as good acidity
and a clean finish that would make it a good accompaniment to Indian
food. As I’ve said before, remember the Alamos! Billington Imports.

Mas Carlot, white, Costieres de Nimes, 2003. $7 Find
this wine
Marsanne and Roussanne frequently play the part of the supporting
cast. However, even though their names rarely appear as the leading
lights of the front label, these white grapes make the often formidable
wines of the Hermitage appellation in the Rhone valley. Since
grape varietals to date have not been permitted on appellation
labels, Marsanne and Roussanne have an “undiscovered” discount
built into them. But this bottle from a small and worthy producer
in the the Nimes region is worth discovering. Stainless steel tank
fermentation preserves the freshness of the fruit flavors and aromas,
with peaches and melons notable. Try with pecorino sheep cheese
and fig spread. Yummy! Imported by Robert Kacher.

Veramonte, Maipo Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2001, $8. Find this wine I was recently in a jam in upstate New York where I needed to find a bottle to bring over to a relative. When I found a wine (but mostly spirits) shop I skipped the cases of soulless Shiraz from Australia and hit upon this bargain. Sure, it’s not artisinal production since Veramonte is part of the global empire of Constellation Brands, but it is widely available and affordable and those count for something. Dark almost like a Bordeaux, but soft tannins and blackberry aromas that make it easy drinking, this Cab is better than many California Cabs that cost more than twice the price. The 2004 Casablanca Valley Sauvignon Blanc (“en screw” as Randall Graham would say) is also a refreshing blast of grapefruit that goes well with seafood. Franciscan Estates, importer.

Sparkler

Mionetto, “Il,” Prosecco, NV. $9.99 ($6 for 375 ml) Find this wine Why not pop a top this new year’s eve instead of a cork? This gently sparkling wine, aka prosecco, from the hills of the Veneto region north of Venice has a sleek, stout bottle with a beer cap on top. Straw in color with a thin bead and weighing in at a mere 10.5% alcohol, this dry wine has notes of melon and apple. But its versatility and fun packaging mean that it can be enjoyed throughout the year and not just to ring in the new one. Importer, Mionetto USA.

Sweetish white

Valckenberg, Gewurztraminer, Pfalz, 2003, $10.49
Find
this wine
Some casual wine drinkers have a knee-jerk reaction against Riesling.
If you want to trick one of these non-believers, then try serving
this Gewurztraminer instead. Crisp and clean the wine has notes
of white peach, citrus, litchi and faint spice. The Pfalz region
produces some standout whites (indeed, this wine is so good it could
be considered without “Pfalz”!) and the hot 2003 summer shows them
at an excellent quality level. This value vino is a terrific pairing
with stir fry and would make a great match with pork tenderloin
as well. Add some spice to your sweetie. Valckenberg Imports, US
Importer.

Sweetest white!

R. L. Buller premium fine Muscat, NV, Australia.
375ml, $12. Find
this wine
Is ending a sumptuous holiday feast with a fortified wine a little
too much? If yes, then try this one on a non-feast night this winter
for a decadent treat. It’s not a port but instead an even sweeter
Australian “sticky,” an intense blend of cask-aged, decades-old
vintages of Muscat from Victoria. Amber in color, you can practically
wring the molasses and maple syrup out of this wine. It will probably
be too concentrated for most people who enjoy table wines, so wine
geeks can unite with grandparents and those who are just getting
into wine to enjoy this affordable sticky—or try it with a cheese
course of Roquefort or Bleu d’Auvergne. The finish is so long that
it will linger well after the dishes are gone.

Light reds

Mondo del Vino, Tre Uve. NV. $8 Find
this wine
With three grape varietals from three different growing areas of
Italy, no vintage, and the humble table wine designation this wine
may seem like a recipe for homogenized and pasteurized blandness.
In fact it is a compelling value. The “three grapes” of the wine
comprise a Sangiovese, bulked up by Nero d’Avola, and Primitivo.
Black fruits and dried herbs are present aromas washed down on the
palate by an Italian acidity. An excellent quaffer for pasta and
pizza. Readers in the UK can enjoy the Tre Uve Ultima, not available
in the US. James G. Stock, importer.

Cusumano, Nero d’Avola, IGT Sicily, 2003. $8.49
Find
this wine
Southern Italy in general and Sicily in particular is emerging as
a great center for excellent value wines. This wine is a good example
of how wines from the region often defy the conventional Old World-New
World stylistic split. From 10 year old vines of the indigenous
grape, the Nero d’Avola, the wine is made in a fruit forward style
that makes it easily accessible. Young, fruity, and approachable—it’s
definitely a new Sicilian. Fairly high in acid, though balanced
with a wad of cherry and blackberry, this wine is a great match
for pizza. Importer: Vin DiVino.

San Gregorio, Tres Ojos, Calatayud, 2003. $6.79 Find this wine This old vine Grenache is like a Gregorian chant with a thumping bass. Light in color but with hearty aromas of earth, berries and pepper and a delicate sweetness characteristic of the grape, this wine from the Northern Spanish of D.O. Calatayud provides further evidence that cooperatives can make great, affordable wines. Romans, Moors, and now the Aragonese have settled in the region and the limestone and slate soils have proved an excellent home to these Grenache vines for the last 50 years. Snap up this bargain by the case to enjoy over the next year or two. Kysela Pere et Fils, importer.

Beyond the grade (but worth it):
Quinta do Vale Meao, Duoro, 2000. $40 Find
this wine
Veramonte, Primus, Casablanca Valley, 2001. $14 Find
this wine
Chalone, Pinot Noir, 2002. $25 Find
this wine
La Fleur Petrus, 1999, $44 Find
this wine