Dr Vino's wine blog

New York City’s wine market can be surprisingly backward and parochial for being the biggest in the US. Fortunately, part of that may be changing.

New York appears on a fast track to deregulate laws on wine shipments. Governor Pataki submitted a bill to the state legislature that would remove the barriers that currently allow wineries in-state to ship to consumers directly while preventing those from out-of-state from having the same privilege. The Supreme Court ruled this discrepancy unconstitutional last week.

In a show of bravura, New York wineries support the decision to remove the barriers to what had been a captive market. And Pataki wrapped his proposal in language to aid the state’s wineries:

“By permitting the interstate shipment of wine in New York, we will allow New York’s wineries to grow even more by opening the doors to new markets across the country that were previously closed to them,” Pataki said in a statement.

Shipments to consumers in New York from New York wineries are bound to decline. The small section of the population that currently orders directly from wineries will likely celebrate the diversity of being able to order from California, Oregon and Washington instead. So they are betting on increased demand from out of state buyers, seemingly a risky proposal.

Legislative resistance to Pataki’s proposal is dissipating (story). On June 8 wine will be the topic of the day in Albany.

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Below Grade

Evan as wine shipments appear to be opening, the NY retail scene remains uncompetitive because of blue laws. Whole Foods Market, the high-end, organic grocery chain, has just closed its wine shop in its Time Warner Center location, reports Florence Fabricant in yesterday’s NYTimes. Although constructed with a separate section and a separate entrance, the shop violated laws that prohibit the sale of wine in grocery stores. A grocery store can operate a wine shop in an adjacent property but it must have a separate entrance at grade. The wine shop at Columbus Circle was in the basement. Yikes! Whole Foods will open a wine shop with the proper entrances at a forthcoming location on East Houston street.

The story also points out that a retailer is only allowed to have one liquor license in New York State. That means that a national chain such as Whole Foods (or Trader Joe’s for that matter, which doesn’t even sell wine or beer at any of its New York locations) must decide which ONE location in the entire Empire State that it wants to have as its wine store. Since chains can offer lower prices and greater selection to consumers, that means one-stop shopping in New York is not an option.

Perhaps wine consumers will target these retailing laws next to create a further opening? With no allies in the shops or wineries, the issue is not likely to get very far (unless, in an ironic twist, the distributors, who oppose direct shipping, get behind it!)

With an unlimited budget, finding great wine is easy: proceed to auctions for the old vintages and leading shops and the wineries directly for the current releases. Yes, there are some details such as struggling to get on the latest cult winery mailing list but the general point remains the same: if price is no object, there are a lot of choices in the wine world.

What’s really hard is trying to find good, exciting wine that doesn’t break the bank. So if the household budget has limits on wine, or even if you are trying to find an expensive favorite for the lowest price, several strategies can maximize the wine dollar.

Where to shop

When bigger is better. Large format retailers drive hard bargains with producers and distributors and mostly pass those cost savings on to the consumer. However, in order to keep costs down, the range wines offered may be neither large nor exciting. If Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay is what you’re after, then Costco is the place for you.

Small is beautiful. While small wine shops are lots of fun, it can be difficult to find bargains. Usually owned by a proprietor who works on the premises, small shops can have a specialty (often a particular country). They are conveniently located either around the corner in a city or next to a supermarket in the country mall. Talk with the staff, particularly the owner, and find out where the shop’s strengths lie. And take advantage of any discounts or freebies listed below, such as free tastings on Fridays or Saturdays.

Mid-sized may be the sweet spot. The mid-sized chain has enough clout with distributors to move the goods and deliver low prices yet may not have forsaken its small shop roots. San Francisco’s The Wine Club and Chicago’s Binny’s and Wine Discount Center are some good examples of low prices and great selections.

Clicks and mortar: The internet has proven a great place to shop for books, DVDs and the latest electronics, but the full potential of the internet has not yet been realized for wine consumers. The recent Supreme Court decision will hopefully radically reshape this landscape very soon. Amazon’s recent partnership with Wine.com could be a sign of things to come in this dynamic space.

How to shop

Taste on someone else’s tab. With so many thousands of wines produced every year, consumers can be easily overwhelmed. And retailers know that. So many of them pour their wines for free! Check you local store for free tastings, often held in evenings during the week and during the day on Saturday. Tasting through all the wines at any given tasting (and yes, spitting is allowed!) will give you a better understanding of the different wine styles available, which over time, will help sharpen your own knowledge and preferences.

Take advantage of seasonal sales. Wine retailing is a business and businesses care about inventory. Certain times of the year demand is slow or new products arrive to push the old ones out the door and consumers should prey on these opportunities. Spring and fall are common times for sales so stock up. One consumer told me recently that he buys about 10 cases of wine a year for his house and buys four or five cases at the spring and fall sales. Walking out of the shop pushing a cart full of multiple cases may seem like a lot, but not only is it economically prudent, it also provides a heady feeling having all that wine (but be sure to store it properly).

Buy in bulk. Large discount retailers claim to offer shoppers “the best prices every day” and therefore don’t rely on sales. Most other shops, however, has some sort of loyalty program or incentive to have you buy more. The most common discount is after bringing a mixed case (12 bottles) to the register, the whole purchase receives a discount of 10, 15, or 20%. This is also a handy index to markups at a shop: the higher the case discount, the more you know the average per bottle price is ripping you off.

Become a regular. Wine shops can offer a “friend’s price” to regular patrons through various loyalty schemes. I recently went to a shop that offered 10% off a single bottle and 20% off cases to members of their club. The only way to become a member of the club, however, was to buy 50 different bottles of wine. This works if it is the shop near you; if you are just visiting the relatives out of town, it may be better to bring wine from home. Loyalty also has the perk of having the staff either reserve certain hard-to-find wines for you or to make accurate and personal recommendations for you.

Check for specials. Bottles that don’t sell can wind up as “bin ends.” Sometimes these are bottles that have had a hard time selling. However, use caution with these wines—a “how can you go wrong for $5.99?” attitude can end up costing you $5.99 if you just end up pouring it down the drain! Check the label for a lack of wine stains and push the cork to check for looseness, both of which may indicate the wine had been improperly stored. Discounts can also be thematic for a week or a month (for example, I recently saw “Pinot Envy” at Union Square Wines in New York in honor of the movie Sideways which discounted Pinots by all 10-25%).

Search the web. I recently bought a camera for cheap through Yahoo Shopping by plugging in the model number and then doing “sort by price.” Wine on the web is not quite at this level of pure price competition yet several search tools do bring it somewhat closer. Wine Searcher and WineZap offer buyers who are looking for specific wines the opportunity to type in a producer and a vintage, which generates multiple vendors. While many local shops may be able to ship across state lines thus avoiding sales tax, it is essential to check the shipping rates as this alone can eat up any cost or tax savings.

Let someone else carry it home for you. Many shops, particularly urban shops, have free delivery to customers in range. While it is not exactly a cost savings to get someone else carry your wine for you, it can be convenient not to have to schlep the 40 pound case any more than you have to.

Happy value hunting. Cheers!

Remember New Coke? It was the sole Coke on retailers’ shelves for something like 100 days before the company reinstated the old one. Now, the drink is mostly known as a case study of how a big company can vastly misjudge its audience.

Let’s hope the same is true for “White Lie,” a new wine from Beringer that is light in alcohol and being exclusively marketed for women. (story)

While it’s true that the trend toward big wines that are high in alcohol can, uh, make your head spin, there shouldn’t be a need to make wines lower in alcohol and market them as only for women. What has wine become, a consumer non-durable such as deodorant or razors?! Does that now mean that we need a bottle each when we go out to dinner?

Which demographic group will wine marketers target next? One shudders to think.

Although the wines are good, Seattle is not the next Napa Valley.

By Mark Ashley

With the increasing popularity and quality of wines from Washington, interest in wine tourism in the region has been growing rapidly. Travelers to Seattle will find brochures touting wineries at their concierge’s desk, and with well-known names like Chateau Ste. Michelle in the area, wine tourists might assume that Seattle is the next San Francisco – a big city with a beautiful wine country a short drive away.

They’d be wrong.

While there are indeed wineries near Seattle, travelers hoping for a miniature Napa Valley will be sorely disappointed. The real Washington wine country is far to the east, separated from the nearest major city by hundreds of miles. (The closest airport is the Tri-City Airport in Pasco, WA.)

However, if you’re less interested in “Napa style” and more interested in wine itself, with some great natural vistas thrown in, then greater Seattle does indeed offer some worthwhile tastings.

The Woodinville area, a half hour’s drive north of Seattle, offers the best wines in the region. The irony is that none of the grapes that are crushed in Woodinville wineries’ presses are actually grown here. Rather, they are picked in eastern Washington, loaded onto trucks, and driven 3 to 4 hours west to be vinted in Seattle’s suburbia.

Why go through this trouble? Why have the winery so far removed from the vineyards? In a word: Marketing. Tourists have not discovered eastern Washington yet, so the wineries have come to where the tourists already are many in town before or after their cruise to Alaska. For the larger wineries, having the facilities closer to the masses is an exercise in brand building, while the smaller players who sell all of their wine directly to the consumer are simply maximizing their odds of a sale.

Some wineries, such as Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia, inhabit grand structures that create the illusion of a long, cherished history of winemaking at this location. Some have planted a few token vines out front to signify that this is indeed a winery. There is even a dinner train, much like in Napa, which winds along Lake Washington to its final stop adjacent to Columbia’s facility.

Chateau Ste. Michelle has the most elaborate grounds, which are often rented out for weddings, corporate functions and even the odd concert including Natalie Merchant and Kenny G at the 4,000 seat (!) amphitheater. You are encouraged to picnic here, weather permitting, of course. To taste their wines, you must take their 45-minute tour of the facilities, where most of their wines (but not their sparklers) are produced.

Though our tour guide was informative, I thought he got on a bit of a high horse during the guide-managed tasting he insisted on teaching everyone about how to taste wine, from how to hold the glass, to how to swirl, to the search for particular flavors in the wine. Well-meant, perhaps, but tedious, frustratingly slow, and not optional. In the end, the visit wasn’t worth it, from a tasting perspective. Four of their large-production wines were served as part of the complimentary tour, with the cabernet sauvignon being the best, but none were particularly interesting, unusual, or difficult to find in the local Safeway. The reserve tastings, for a charge, offer a better option, and allow you to skip the tour.

Just across the street, and a stone’s throw from the vaunted (and pricey) Herbfarm restaurant, Columbia Winery offers tours as well, but doesn’t require them for entry to their tasting room. Try to avoid the tasting bar when the wine train arrives with its passengers: Not only will you get space at the bar, but you’ll actually have a longer (and better!) list of wines to choose from. I found the German-varietal whites to be particularly good here.

Forgoing a neo-chateau for their facilities, other producers have taken a less ostentatious approach, choosing to make their wines in the backs of corrugated-walled warehouses, with a purely functional tasting area that consists of a bar and a cash register. Still others have simply built full-service tasting rooms behind the drab exteriors, with all the knick-knacks for sale as in the most commercialized Napa winery.

Perhaps the best of the “warehouse wines” is Facelli Winery, a small family operation where owner and chief winemaker Louis Facelli pours his handicraft from behind a spartan bar on weekends. His reds are especially worthwhile, and include some quirky wines. While I didn’t care particularly for the Lemberger, a fairly uncommon varietal that originated in Austria, I really enjoyed the late harvest syrah. This was far and away the most memorable wine that any Woodinville winery poured, and it is a wine that Louis is particularly (and justifiably!) proud of. This inky dessert wine was a real surprise, a complex, fruit-forward concentrate, without being syrupy-sweet. (My wife still grumbles that we left without buying a bottle.)

Besides Woodinville, there are wineries to the west of the city, on the Olympic Peninsula in Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend, as well as on Whidbey and Bainbridge Islands. As in Woodinville, most of the wine is produced from grapes trucked in from the east. However, some do grow their own grapes on tiny plots nearby, from relatively unknown varietals better suited to the difficult climate, such as Madeleine Angevine, and many make wines from honey, berries or other fruit. Production is tiny, usually with less than 2000 cases per producer per year.

For the most part, these wines are unfortunately not very good. For example, Greenbank Cellars on Whidbey Island touts their wines as “Alsatian style,” but their whites were high in acid without a balance of minerality. The nearby Whidbey Island Winery’s wines were far superior overall, though generally unremarkable. Whidbey’s rhubarb wine (!!) was an odd surprise. I would love to see this wine in a blind tasting competition, just to see what contestants would guess it to be. Produced by first freezing the rhubarb, which causes the cell structure to break down, the resulting wine is a light, fairly dry rose with an unexpected but not entirely unpleasant finish. Stump your friends! Alas, Whidbey asks $2 tasting fee for its wines.

I cannot wholeheartedly recommend a trip to these western maritime areas just for the wine. (These producers have combined to form the North Olympic Peninsula and Islands Winery Loop Association, www.wineryloop.org, which offers details on each of its members on the website.) But the small wineries are indeed charming, and a brief visit is a nice way to break up a day of hiking in the beautiful surroundings.

On the other hand, the Woodinville area is indeed worth a short drive. I would certainly go back on my next trip to Seattle, to sample some of the smaller family-owned wineries’ offerings. To visit these tasting rooms is truly to come for the wine. You’ll find natural beauty–including vineyard charm–elsewhere in the state.

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Here’s a link to Seattle area wineries. Yowza. I wish I had that list before going…
http://www.weekendwinery.com/Wineries/Wineries_WA_Seattle.htm

Nypmh whites (young and flowery)

Viognier de Campuget, Cuvée Prestige, vin de
pays d’oc, 2003. $9.99 Find
this wine

Viognier is a peripatetic grape that has landed in the Andes and
California recently. This excellent value example has traveled only
a few dozen miles from the grape’s ancestral home of Condrieu. Hand
harvested from low-yielding vines grown in the Costieres de Nimes
region but bottled as a vin de pays, this 100% Viognier has
excellent aromatics of flowers and white peach. Crisp acidity makes
it very food friendly. Impress your friends with this cuvee prestige
as the weather warms up and dining starts to be al fresco. Winery
and vineyard photos;
Robert Kacher Selections, importer.

Cusumano, Insolia, IGT white, 2003. $8.50 Find this wine From under the Sicilian sun, this youthful white will brighten even a midwinter day. Not a brand, Insolia is actually the name of the local white grape used in this wine. This family-owned winery with 140 acres of vines produces some excellent value vino (including a great red Nero D’Avola) as this distinctive white from 10 year old vines shows. Golden in color with fresh, floral notes similar to a Viognier, this food friendly wine is even robust enough to accompany the flavors of a channa masala.

Dry rosé

Castano, Monastrell rose (rosado), D.O. Yecla,
2003 $7 Find
this wine
I have praised the red wines from Bodegas Castaño before, but this
rosé (aka “Rosado”) wine deserves attention as well. A dry rosé
pressed from the Monastrell (Mourvedre), this clean, not cloying,
pink wine is a great way to get in a summer state of mind. Even
if the thermometer is not yet hitting summer highs, this rose is
a refreshing and versatile food wine-it paired well with an aromatic
and gently spicy curry. Eric Solomon, importer.

Big reds

Etim, Falset Marça, Montsant, 2001. $13 Find
this wine
Wow, why do the good bottles go so quickly? This wine, Grenache
from 60 year old vines with 15% Cabernet Sauvignon blended in, hails
from a cooperative in Catalonia’s Montsant region (a lower rent
terroir near the famed Priorat). Silky smooth, with hints of minerality,
blueberry, supple leather, oak influence and faint spice, the greatest
question a consumer of this wine will have is why the bottle is
empty so soon after popping the cork. Yes, this Etim comes in over
the $10 grade but it would be a great accompaniment to an Easter
meal or weekend occasion. Langdon Shiverick importer.

Fairview, Pinotage, (Paarl) 2002. $10 Find
this wine
Charles Back is known for his goats. The owner of the Fairview “wine
farm” in Paarl, South Africa, not only has goats on the property
to make wonderful cheeses, but goats adorn the labels of many of
his wines. (The best known is the light-hearted Goats do Roam, the
largest South African wine brand exported to the United States.)
This wine under the Fairview label is made from the native Pinotage
grape. Forget food friendly; at its worst, Pinotage is not even
friendly! But this Pinotage made in a New World style and has smoldering
dark fruits as well as smoky, leathery aromas that make it compelling
in its distinctiveness. Stump your wine geek friends with this one
in a blind tasting! Importer: Vineyard Brands.

Bodegas Palacio, Cosme Palacio y Hermanos,
red, Rioja, 2001 $10.49 Find
this wine
Hijos de Antonio Barcelo have assembled an attractive portfolio
of value vino producers that includes Viña Mayor and Peñascal. This,
their winery in the Rioja, is new world in its business orientation:
it has no vineyards and purchases all its grapes. Surprisingly,
despite being aged for 10 months in new French oak, the 100% Tempranillo
is not overly oaky (the way many Riojas can be) but has some good
acid as well as the more customary dark fruits, leather and smooth
tannins. The excellent finish really pushes this wine over the edge
to excellent value vino!

Lyeth, Meritage, Sonoma, 2002, $11 Find this wine Remember when Sonoma wines used to be good and affordable? This wine from Sonoma’s Lyeth (rhymes with “teeth”; now a part of the expanding empire of Jean-Claude Boisset) harkens back to that bygone era. A “meritage,” or Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with a dash of Cab Franc, this ruby red wine has wonderful aromatics of dark fruits as well as supple tannins and a smooth mouthfeel. Handsome in a sleek, label-less bottle, it would make an excellent gift.

Light, fruity reds

Imus, Montsant, 2002. $6. Find
this wine

This is one Imus to enjoy in the evening. Of course this wine has
nothing to do with the radio shock jock known for the radio program
“Imus in the morning.” The wine hails from the Falset-Marça cooperative
in the Spanish region of Montsant where the locals undoubtedly pronounce
it EEE-mousse. With the light sweetness that is typical of Grenache,
the wine punches above its low price point with good balance and
concentration. A great pizza wine, also try substituting this for
a beaujolais. Importer: Langdon Shiverick.

Las Rocas de San Alejandro, old vines Grenache, 2003, $8.50 The 2003 Las Rocas remains a compelling value vino. However, this vintage of the old-vine Grenache from the viticulturally obscure region of Calatayud, is the reverse of the 2002: unlike last year’s (Parker 91 pts), which I suggested needed 30 minutes of decanting, this vintage is best right after the (synthetic) cork is popped (although after 24 hours uncorked on the counter, it had few signs of deterioration, an honor generally reserved for wines at much higher price points). The light and clear red color gives way to complex aromas of cherry, leather and some spice with an impressive finish for a wine of this price point. After 30 minutes of open air, by contrast, this vintage gained astringency and tartness. So best to drink up quickly! Las Rocas rocks. Importer: Eric Solomon. Find this wine

Domaine de Perrieres, Costieres de Nimes, 2001. $9.99 Find
this wine
Marc Kerydenweiss of Alsace and Burgundy bought a small vineyard
in the Southern French region of Costieres de Nimes in 1999. He
has farmed it using biodynamics, sort of an enhanced organic method
that throws in some astrology. The resulting wines are “concentrated,
rich in minerals and energizing” he claims on his web
site. I did not find myself particularly energized by this wine,
nor was it overly concentrated; instead, there was a distinct minerality,
acidity, and a faint barnyard finish. This blend of Syrah, Carignan
and Grenache would be a wine endorsed by the movie Mondovino
since it is so terroir-driven. A good pick for Earth
Day. NOTE: lovers of “hedonistic fruit bombs” should avoid this
wine. Importer: Wilson
Daniels.

Beyond the grade (but worth it):
Pierre Jourdan NV Cuvee Rose. (pink sparkler, Paarl) $17. Find
this wine
Bianchi Particular, Merlot 2003. (Mendoza) $30 Find
this wine
Bodegas Tikal, Corazon, 2001. (Mendoza) $29 Find
this wine
Dehlinger, Cabernet Franc, 1995. (Russian River) $?? Find
this wine

Guiseppe Quintarelli, Secco Ca’del Merlo, 2003. (Veneto) $35 Find
this wine

Wine consumers across America can rejoice with the Supreme Court ruling handed down this morning that allows direct wine shipments from wineries to consumers. Twenty six states including New York, Florida and Michigan had prevented direct shipments based on a legal framework dating from the patchwork repeal of Prohibition. (story SF Chronicle)

It was bound to be a close decision for the Court, pitting the free traders against the social conservatives, but in the end the free interstate commerce carried the day with the 5-4 decision.

“States have broad power to regulate liquor,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers.”

“If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms,” he wrote.

Kennedy was joined by Justices Scalia, Ginsburg, Souter, and Breyer. Showing how difficult an issue this represents for the Court and in particular this conservative Court, Justices Thomas and Scalia parted ways. Justices Thomas, Rhenquist, O’Connor were joined by Stevens in the dissent. This is a cleavage of the Court that rarely appears.

The 24 states that maintain some sort of limits on shipments will have to level the playing field between in-state and out-of-state wineries. Currently in New York, for example, wines from Long Island and the Finger Lakes can be shipped to residents in Manhattan. This ruling means that Governor Pataki and the legislature must decide whether to eliminate direct sales altogether or to allow California, Oregon and Washington state wineries the same privilege.

Given that Governor Pataki and the other 23 governors of states with limits on shipping are always looking for ways to boost revenue and they could do worse than follow last week’s example by Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Texas will collect sales tax revenue on shipments now as well as a shipper’s permit fee from wineries. Wine consumers will be waiting with eager anticipation that they decide to allow all shipments.

Our man in Washington

Documentaries analyze social reality. If you want hard core social (or political or economic) analysis—you know, with data and theory—turn to academia. Even though they have nowhere near the amount of viewers as feature films, documentaries do however attract a larger audience than academia while being a similar sort of endeavor. So it was with great relish that I went to see Mondovino, the controversial new documentary about globalization in the wine world that opened in March in New York and rolls out in small movie houses across the country over the next few weeks.

If the film were a paper from one of my political science students, I would have returned it with lots of red ink in the margins. “AWK” (awkward!), “elaborate further,” “need stronger intro,” “redundant” might be things that I would scrawl. I will save my grade for the end of this review.
Though the documentary has some wonderfully candid moments of wine world luminaries, it remains scattershot in its argument and jiggly in its camerawork thanks to the camera’s midriff location on the cameraman. Though this film has been compared to Michael Moore’s documentaries for the similar styles of pamphleteering, Moore remains light years ahead of director Jonathan Nossiter in terms of coherence, presentation of argument, use of music and overall rhythm—not to mention humor.

If Nossiter could have clearly articulated his argument it would have run something like this: greater globalization in the wine trade, including corporations, critics and traveling consultants, has lead to a homogenization of wines that robs them of a sense of place. In short, brand equals bland. A voiceover narrative would have helped articulate this more clearly but instead Nossiter relies on suggestion, the fast edit, or worse, vague innuendo, to merely suggest his thesis.

It is the great fear of all wine geeks that we will be banished forever to a future of bland wines. But there is also the possibility that corporations with deep pockets will use profits from low-end wines to subsidize the production of profound high-end wines. Or that committed enthusiasts will start small, craft wineries. Certainly Champagne houses have shown that brands are not necessarily bland and can work very well at the high-end. Premium wines are the fastest growing category in the drinks business after all and competition is fierce.

The evidence that Nossiter provides to support his claim fits about as well as 12 bulky bottles of Turley fit in a regular wine case. To start, the Mondavi Corporation serves as the main lens for his tale of the perils of globalization. This is problematic because Robert Mondavi has done much more good than harm for the California wine industry-and the creation of a wine and food culture in America, soon to be the largest market for wine consumption in the world. Further, the corporation’s financial and management problems brought it to its own demise as an indepdenent entity when Constellation bought the company last fall.

Similarly, Robert Parker and Michel Rolland have contributed to globalization in their roles as all-powerful wine critic and “flying winemaker” respectively. But the wines that they advocate are “hedonistic fruit bombs” – anything but bland! Sure, some could quip that Parker’s palate is tired or Rolland’s apparent obsession with the one-size-fits-all solution of “micro-oxygenization” is too much, but net-net these global players have done a lot to raise the quality of wine around the world, not to lower it.

Certainly if one were crudely carving up the wine world into good and evil, American wine wholesalers would be an easy target even though they do not figure in the film. Consolidation of this middle tier of distribution means that the players become more focused on the products of big companies (to wit, Diageo, the largest drinks firm in the world now insists that its wholesalers have exclusive sales teams dedicated to their products). Do wine consumers in, say, Florida have access to the wines of Nossiter’s folk heroes, from Sicily or Guibert from Languedoc? Possibly not. In this light, Parker and his ratings are entirely optional; whether a wine is available at the local store is not.

In the end, all papers must get a grade and I give this movie a C-. (For those of you who finished your formal education long ago, grade inflation has made C- the new F.) Nossiter appears to have many raw talents such as his ability to conduct interviews in idiomatic English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. The topic is fascinating and important and very amenable to the camera lens. And even the argument may be salvageable with more thorough evidence and less repetition. I’ll consider this a rough draft.

Mrs. Vino and I recently dined with some friends at Chicago’s fashionable restaurant, Green Zebra, when I admitted to booking a ticket on Southwest Airlines. Our dining companions looked aghast. Had I committed a social faux pas among the trendy diners by confessing budget-mindedness? “Don’t fly Southwest,” one dining companion blurted out. “They give to Republicans.”

With Americans still feeling the election’s split into red states and blue states, many consumers follow the money that flows from places they shop into politics. Wine enthusiasts, a bunch with inquiring minds, might also want to know similar information. Thanks to the Center for Responsive Politics, such an undertaking is now an easy proposition.

The table below shows the political contributions of the big liquor interests. The original data were sorted by amount but I sorted by strength of party contribution to help those consumers who view their wines as red or blue identify the political color of their wine more quickly.

The wine, beer, and liquor industry still remains a relatively small player in terms of political contributions: many industries such as lawyers, real estate, and oil, greatly outstripped the whole drinks industry in the 2004 election cycle (about $11 million). The political color of the donations, now 63% “red,” has tilted toward Republicans over the past fifteen years, although there is also a tendency toward favoring incumbents.

Traditionally, this category has been a small political donor because the range of issues has been narrowly focused on alcohol taxes and regulations. However, the National Beer Distributors has recently increased their donations and shifted the focus toward making the repeal of the estate tax permanent. Their members include family-owned distributorships.

While this data captures information from some wine makers as well as some distributors of beer and wine, the Center for Responsive Politics does not provide easy information on retailers. The retail end of wine sales had been consolidating too: Costco and Sam’s Club account for about a third of all wine sold in the US. Although polarized, there is some equality among the two big retailers since Costco executives give heavily to Democrats while Wal-Mart (which owns Sam’s Club) executives give mostly to Republicans.

Source: Center for Responsive Politics