Wine Clubs

Shortly after my 21^st birthday, I discovered Malibu Wines and their amazing tasting room/grounds.  Shortly thereafter, I joined their wine club, my first and only wine club.  I decided to join the wine club for several reasons, but mostly because of its proximity to home.  Most wine clubs offer free tastings and other on-site events to their members, but unless you live near them or are able to visit them frequently, the only perk of the wine club is the wine that you get in your “shipments,” ie. the wine you commit to buy.  Now, at some wineries, the wine that you get to buy is not available to the public.  And, at just a few wineries, the only way you can buy their wine is to be a member of their club.  But that is just a small percentage of wineries.

Back to the reason I joined Malibu Wines' club.  I live near there and their outdoor tasting room makes for a great afternoon/date/place to get away.  Unlike most tasting rooms, you can actually buy a bottle of wine here and have it with a picnic.  And, with tastings for $10, if you go twice every four months, being a wine club member pays for itself just in free tastings, and you still get the wine!

Malibu Wines is home to the Semler and Saddlerock labels.  The Semler label is named after the founder, and the Saddlerock is named for the AVA the vineyard is located in.  The Saddlerock AVA happens to be one of the smallest AVAs in the nation.  The winery focuses mostly on red wines.  In fact, on Semler, their premium label, they only produce one white, a Sauvignon Blanc.  Their concentration is with Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine they have been making for 10 years now, and one that is quite good. 

If you live near a winery, I highly recommend looking into their wine club because they advantage of proximity to a winery lets you take full advantage of all that the wine club has to offer.  Also, if you are in the Los Angeles area, take a trip up to Malibu Wines sometime.  It is a great place to spend an afternoon.

Mobile Wine

With the proliferation of smart phones, iPads, and other devices that give us access to information on the go, the general public has had more information about wine at their fingertips than ever before.  People can look up a wine before they buy it at the grocery store.  You can find the perfect pairing for your dinner while walking down the aisle in the store.  You can even compare prices of wine, vintages, and producers, all at the touch of a button, and do it from anywhere.

I already touched on this a bit when writing about the future of wine marketing and social media, but that was only the tip of the iceberg.  People are much more connected now than ever before, and while that is a bad thing in some ways, it does give us access to more information, which in the case of wine, is usually a good thing.  Using information on the go and while looking at wines can help us sort out the producers, vintages, varietals, and regions that can confuse consumers when thinking about wine.  For example, “Wine Spectator” has a mobile vintage app for the iPhone that gives users their region by region vintage chart for the desired region, so you are sure to pick up the bottle of 2007 Napa Cabernet instead of the 2006.  This doesn’t guarantee that you will pick up a better wine, but picking a wine from a vintage that rated 97 will generally be better than one from a vintage rated 87.  I’m not a big user of this particular app, but it is fun to have on hand when I’m trying something new and just need a bit of information.  I like to go by producer more so than vintage, so I find other apps more helpful.

Wine Notes is a free app on the iPhone that allows you to enter tasting notes and store them on your phone so that you always have them on hand and are able to recall them at the touch of a button when needed.  This application is limited in its capabilities, but it can be a useful tool to log tasting notes on the go and to highlight wines that you want to try again, stay away from, or to just build a general database for yourself.  The only problem is that you have to get in the habit of using it.

My favorite app for wine is the Cellar app that costs just $3 for the iPhone, but it worth every cent.  This app allows you to thoroughly catalog your wine collection, keep notes on bottles that you’ve had, keep tabs on bottles to try, and ones to avoid.  The app has 4 basic areas- your cellar (wines you currently own), your wish list (self-explanatory), garage (wines you’ve had but want to try again), and garbage (wines to stay away from).  The beauty of this application is that when entering a bottle into one of the areas, you put in all the general information (vintage, producer, varietal, region, etc.), but you can also take a picture of the label to add to the wine so you can see and remember it in the future, you can add a price, rating, drink by, notes, and pairings.  Again, this is something that takes some getting used to using, but it can definitely help you out and allow you to keep track of what you’ve had, what you liked (or didn’t), and why. 

These 3 apps are just a few that I use regularly, and while I’m sure there are more out there that are completely worthwhile, with all the information we have available to us, it is important to not overwhelm yourself with too much information.  I’d always recommend trusting your gut when choosing a wine or a pairing, but I’d also recommend using something like one of these apps to assist you in building your palate and appreciation of wine by helping you remember characteristics of wine that you’ve had.  Let me know if there is any app out there that I should check out, I’m always eager to find something else that can help out my own appreciation of wine.

Corks and Screw Caps

One area where I’m right in line with the industry tradition is the debate of screw caps vs. corks.  I’m so for corks that I’m not even all that crazy about the artificial corks that are pretty common nowadays.  I just think that there is something nice about using the goofy looking corkscrew to open a bottle of wine that makes it a bit more special than just twisting off a lid.

You twist off lids to soda bottles, water bottles, beer bottles, why does wine have to be like the others?  Shouldn’t all alcohol be more properly secured than just a screw cap?  Screw caps aren’t child proof at all, but a cork is.  A pretty weak argument, I know but it is something.  I just like the overly complicated old method of opening a wine bottle that involves cutting away the foil, inserting the corkscrew, and using the leverage on the instrument to pull out the cork.  It is so much more satisfying than just twisting off a cap.

I know all of the statistics that say that wine keeps longer with a screw cap than it does with a cork.  I know the statistics that say wine is less likely to have problems (ie. rot, over oxidization, or be “corked”) with a screw cap, and while it would be a bummer to have a nice bottle of wine go bad solely because of a bad cork, I don’t know how I feel about abandoning corks all together because of this little chance of failure because of the cork.

Corks are also more expensive than screw caps, and like I wrote yesterday, the wine industry is still a business, so I can understand why some producers have moved to screw caps, ditching the corks.  I understand all of the reasons for wine using the screw caps, but I still appreciate those that stick to tradition. 

I’ll admit that most of my attachment to corks is due to the fact that I like to keep my corks and would, someday, like to do something creative with them, so I’m biased there.  I’ll also admit that I like corks because I believe that if the industry is going to move to screw caps, they might as well go the whole nine yards and just move to boxed wine (which is better for keeping wine than bottles), and I just can’t support that at all.

Next time you’re at the store, notice how many wines are now using screw caps.  It’s a trend in the industry that is being backed by some pretty significant studies.  While screw caps do appear to be better than corks, I’m far from wanting to abandon corks.

White Zinfandel

I spent most of my weekend at the PGA golf tournament in near my place this weekend.  Apart from being amazed at how good pro golfers are, I was shocked that they only had one option when it came to wine at the concession stands, and that that options was White Zinfandel.  I stayed away from it, but I did see a bunch of people drinking the pink wine while I was on the course.  This got me to thinking why White Zinfandel would be the wine of choice for this event, and I came to the conclusion that it sells and that the event’s goal is to make money.

Regardless of how you feel about sweet White Zinfandels, buttery Chardonnays, fruit bomb Cabernets, or any other cookie cutter wine, wineries make wine in a particular style because that is what sells.  So, while I’d love to hate a particular winery because they produce predictable wine, I have to respect them as a business because they are trying to make money.  The quality of what is made doesn’t matter, it just comes down to will it sell, and for how much?

While I would have thought that something like Chardonnay or Cabernet would have sold better than White Zinfandel at the golf tournament, there are people at every turn imaginable that are out to forecast sales and figure out what wine will do well and why.  Restaurants follow trends to figure out how much people are spending on wine, and what they are buying when they figure out what to put on their wine lists.  Event specialists do the same thing, looking at everything from demographic of the target audience to their buying habits and preferences.  Grocery stores do the same thing.  So, next time you ask yourself why a particular wine is being served in a given situation, know that it was chosen for that exact situation by analysts, and it was determined that this particular wine varietal at the particular price would make as much money as possible for the event/winery/store, etc.  Wine is a business, and while it is easy to forget that sometimes, it is fun to think about to connect the dots and figure out how and why things are the way they are.

So, moral of the story, while I wasn’t thrilled with the tournament’s choice of wine, I do have to applaud them for apparently doing their homework and figuring out what would sell and sticking with it, even if that choice did raise the eyebrows of some people in the crowd.

Glassware

Glassware is an interesting subject for me because I jump on and off of the bandwagon so often.  Like other wine gimmicks (aerators, fancy decanters, wine preservation gizmos, etc.), I think the difference is purely mental.  Much the way that someone would be scared to call a $5 bottle of wine better than a $50 bottle, I think that drinking out of fancy glassware opposed to a paper cup just compels people to think that nicer=better.  My thoughts on glassware are simple- it is still what’s in the cup that counts much more so than what the cup is.

I think that some of the premium glassware companies that have developed cups specifically for certain varietals may be onto something, but I’m not entirely sold on the idea.  I think that wine, being a drink that inspires some thought, definitely benefits from a nice presentation, but are the glasses worth the often high price tag?  These glasses, designed for a specific varietal, say Pinot Noir, are shaped in such a way to accentuate the aroma and bouquet of a wine, and to allow for optimal air flow.  I’m sure that there are differences in each grape varietal that justify the different shapes in glasses, but I am still unsure that Mr. Reidel’s ideas of optimal shape, air exposure, etc. align with mine.

To test the merits of glassware, I am going to sample a Pinot Noir out of two different glasses.  Glass one will be the Reidel glass designed for Pinot Noir, the other glass will be just your standard red wine glass.  Because the two glasses are shaped differently, I won’t be able to conduct this test blind, but I’m going to trust my own impartiality on the matter (you should too). 

The wine that I will be trying is a Frei Brothers Pinot Noir Reserve from 2008.  I pour myself half a glass into each of the glasses and begin my tasting.  I start by looking at the wine in each glass and it looks the same.  I then swirl the wine around the glass and go in for a sense of the smell for each of the wines.  The standard glass has a bright, fruity smell, mostly berries, but that was all that I got out of it except for the standard alcohol smell.  Now, onto the Reidel glass.  I immediately smelt the difference between the two glasses.  It smelled like an entirely different wine, but this wasn’t necessarily a good thing.  While I got the berry smell the same as the other glass, I was overpowered by alcohol from my smell here.  I had to recover a bit from the sting in my nose and then decided to look at the bottle to see if it was a high alcohol content wine or if the glass was just accentuating the smell for some reason.  Turns out this Pinot was a 14.5% wine, meaning it has a pretty high alcohol content.  I was now kind of impressed with the glass being able to tell me about this aspect of the wine’s character, but I wasn’t blown away by the overall difference between the two.

Onto taste.  Simply put, the same wine tasted the same out of the two glasses.  Honestly, had the glasses been the same shape and I had been blindfolded, I would not have been able to taste a difference.  I’m sure Mr. Reidel would say my palate isn’t sophisticated enough and I was doing it wrong, but no matter his opinion, I know what I tasted.  I let the wine open up a bit and after a half hour I sampled each again and still found no difference.  I wasn’t surprised; I was a bit disappointed to be honest.  After my modest discovery in the scent department, I had high hopes for the taste difference but was left with nothing (except the wine which was quite good regardless of the glass). 

So, my moral of the story from this single test: the glass can have an effect on the way we smell wine and what stands out to us, but as far as taste goes, the difference is nothing (or if there is a difference, it is so small that it isn’t easily detectable).  If you have the means to buy nice glass ware, consider it a luxury and something that is nice to have, but don’t think that you are missing out on anything special if you are just drinking out of the standard wine glasses.  Maybe I’ll try to track down a glass designed for a different varietal to see if my findings are consistent across varietals.

Wine: A Very Brief History

Most people know that Jesus turned water into wine sometime in the early years A.D., and some people may even know that Dionysus/Bacchus, the ancient Roman/Greek god was the god of wine, but that only gets us back to 1000-2000 years B.C.  I’d wager that most people don’t know that wine originated a few thousand years before that.  The best guess is that sometime between 5000 and 8000 B.C. wine became a staple for the people living in what is present day Georgia (Middle East Georgia, not “Devil Went Down to Georgia” Georgia).  From some evidence there, and from some found in Greece and Macedonia, it is likely that wine first made/seen in Europe maybe a thousand years later.

From there, it is pretty easy to connect the dots to see how wine because a staple in life across the world.  We have the Greeks and Romans to thank for the first real effective barrels for storing wine and the first wine presses.  We have the Romans to thank for our confusing wine classification systems.  As far as I know, they were the first to create appellations as they discovered that certain regions produced better wine than others.

As you move from ancient times, into the dark ages wine became a staple in much of Europe.  While wine was common across much of Europe at this point, it was probably around this time that many of the famous varietals from Europe found their modern homes.  Think Champagne, Bordeaux, Tempranillo, Riesling, and likely others.  Wine in Europe thrived for a few hundred years until the mid-1800s.

In 1855 wine’s greatest tragedy struck much of Europe.  Phylloxera (little bugs that eat and kill grape wines) descended upon the wine industry and destroyed nearly all of the vines in Europe.  From what I’ve read, we can blame an English scientist for bringing the bug from America.  Because of the different resistances and genetic structures of the grape vines in America and Europe, the American vines had a defense for the bug and the European vines didn’t.  So, if you’re keeping score, Europe brought diseases to the new world that killed people, and, a few centuries after that, the new world gave European wine a disease and sent them back to square one.

Also in 1855, France instituted their classification system for Bordeaux, ranking producers of wine in different tiers.  While many things about many of the vineyards ranked in this classification have changed, the tiers have remained nearly identical, opting for tradition and consistency over movement up and down the ladder based on merit.

By the end of the 1800s, European growers began to graft their native vines to the bug resistant vines from the new world and they were back in business.  Flash forward to the 1970s (this part will be familiar to you if you’re seen “Bottle Shock”), an English wine connoisseur living in France organized a competition between California and France to see who had the best wine.  California beat France in both the red and white competition.  While the results of that competition are undisputedly significant, on the whole, France was still producing higher quality wine on the whole.  In the states, we had our “good stuff,” but we were still mostly drowning in the cheap stuff that was horrible.

Moving along to today… wine is made in every corner of the planet.  More wine is being produced by more different countries than ever before.  What’s next for wine?  I’ve written some about that (see posts on wine marketing, Chardonnay vs. Riesling, Parker’s downfall, etc.), but for the most part, the wine world’s next great thing is still out there waiting to be discovered.  I hope you enjoyed this very brief history on wine.  I know I ran through 10,000 years in just a few paragraphs, but hopefully some of this was interesting, and I'm hoping that I didn't miss anything too important.

Sulfites

Sulfites have been added to wine for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.  They are added to preserve wine and protect it from oxidization, among other ailments that can destroy wine.  The problem with sulfites is that some people are allergic to them, and people tend to experience these allergic reactions in the form of headaches.  Since red wine tends to be aged longer than white wine, red wine generally contains more sulfites than white wine to protect the wine during its aging.

So, why then do the sulfites in wine occasionally give people an allergic reaction when sulfites are commonly found in other foods that we eat every day without experiencing the same reactions?  This is because that most of the sulfites that we consume on a day to day basis are natural sulfites and because the sulfites added to wine are generally artificially added in, causing our bodies to react differently.  Some bodies just can’t process the sulfites added into wine in a natural way, thus causing the reaction that turns some people away from red wine.

Wine needs sulfites to be able to age.  Without sulfites, wine would not be able to age for more than about a year before turning to vinegar.  So, while this might work for a Chardonnay or any number or white wines, red wines like Bordeaux that generally require some aging would be lost without these little additions.  It is possible to find red wine without sulfites, but if you do, be sure to note that it is a “drink immediately” bottle and don’t let it hide in your collection for too long.

Just look at sulfites as a necessary evil for wine to age and mature.  And, if you are part of the unlucky portion that has a reaction to the sulfites in wine, just know your limits and you should be fine. 

Cal-Ital

The term Cal-Ital refers to an Italian grape varietal that is grown in California, not in Italy as is traditional.  For the most part, the big red Italian grapes (Barbera and Sangiovese) don’t do well, and don’t get much respect outside their traditional growing grounds in Italy, but some Californian wineries have experimented with these varietals and a few have created wines worth drinking.  I have always been drawn to the Cal-Ital wines because Italian wine is what made me fall in love with wine, so I am always excited to see what California can do with my favorites.  I’ll admit, my curiosity had led to more disappointment than excitement, but I’m always glad to try California’s attempts at recreating the Italian style of wine.

While I mentioned that I have been mostly disappointed with my sampling of Cal-Itals, here are a few that I do enjoy and would recommend picking up should the opportunity present itself (which, sadly, the opportunity probably won’t present itself since most cal-itals are made in such small quantities that they are very hard to find).  But anyway, my favorite Cal-Ital to date is a Sangiovese from Santa Barbara County and a tiny winery named Ethan.  This Sangiovese is a bit more fruit forward than the traditional products out of Chianti, but at Ethan, they make it work.  I think their key to success (and the key to success for any Cal-Ital producer) is their ability to make the best possible wine from the grape, not the best possible imitation of an Italian wine they can from the grape.  Ethan Sangiovese’s production is tiny (only 50 cases), so unless you visit the winery, you are unlikely to find this one in stores, but should you ever spot a bottle, it is definitely worth a try.  Another Cal-Ital favorite of mine comes from Paso Robles and the relatively new Niner winery.  While they do make a Sangiovese, their Barbera struck me as the better all-around wine.  And, counter to the point I just made, their expression of Barbera was quite similar to the northern Italian version of the wine.  I picked up a bottle of their wine and want to let it age a few years to see how an older version compares to its Italian counterparts, but I liked what I had in the tasting room and am excited to try it after it gains a bit of age in the bottle.  My last wine Cal-Ital is a Dolcetto that I picked up from Tre Anelli (also Santa Barbara County).  I don’t know a lot about Dolcetto, not having had that much of it while in Italy, but again, like the others, I was struck by the quality of the wine.  Dolcetto means “little sweet one” in Italian, but this wine was anything but.  It was big, tannic, dry, and fruity.  I know that traditionally Dolcetto wines aren’t meant to be aged long, so I’ll have to look at opening this bottle here before too long and see if my memory of its quality from my little taste at the winery was merited.

Hopefully my statement saying I’ve been mostly disappointed with Cal-Ital wines won’t discourage you from trying them in the future because there are gems to be found.  If you are a fan of a particular Italian wine, go to your wine store and tell them that you want to taste a Californian example of that varietal, and hopefully, they will pick out something good for you.

What a Wonderful Wine Weekend

This weekend included a lot of great wine. Saturday was an interesting day because I dropped my car off at Pep Boy’s to get my tires changed at 945 am.  I got my car back at about 515 pm.  So, all day, I was on foot in Westwood.  Now, it was just my luck that this weekend was Wally Wine's semi-annual tent sale.  Last summer was my first experience with Wally's sale, and it was marked by me spending too much money on wine, and not enough time trying the free samples.  This time, I was determined to get the full experience, and I feel that I succeeded. 
I walked the mile from the Pep Boys over to the store just in time for the opening.  Now, Wally's tent sale is held in a tent (surprise, surprise) in the parking lot outside their store.  I knew the general lay out from my visit the previous summer, so I took a quick lap around the tent to get my bearings and then made a little game plan for attack on the sale. 

Naturally, my visit started with a trip to the Italian wine tables.  I found a little table that 4 Italian producers were sharing.  The wines they were pouring included a white from Veneto (a blend that was drinkable, but not worth the price tag) and a rosso di Montalcino (Brunello's little brother) from Canalicchio di Sopra.  I was excited to try this wine and meet the maker, because when I was in Italy in 2008, I bought a bottle of his Brunello from the 2004 vintage.  Talking with him (in Italian, of course) got me excited to drink his Brunello whenever I decide to pop it open.  He simply told me to "wait for a good day" to drink it.  Next in the lineup at this little table was a Barbaresco from up north in Lombardy.  Like the rosso, this wine was also poured by the winemaker.  It didn't strike me as anything special, and definitely not worth the price, but still, it was a quality wine and I was happy to try it and chat with the man that made it.  Last in the lineup was the Amarone della Valpolicella.  To me, this wine stole the show.  As I was sampling it, a man came up and asked me what I thought about it.  I replied by saying that I don’t have much experience drinking Amarone, but that I had always liked what I’d had.  He and I started to talk a little bit and it became apparent that he really knew Amarone and just wine in general.  When I asked him how he knew so much about this particular wine, he responded by saying that he made it and had been doing so for years.  I picked up a bottle and had him sign it.  After talking a bit more, he told me to write him if I ever made it up to Piedmont.  I may have to take him up on that offer, it would be fun to get a tour of a vineyard up there.

Keep in mind that was just my first stop on my tour of the tent.  Next, I moved onto the bubbly portion of the tent.  I went here next because I knew that no matter what happened, I would not be buying a bottle of bubbly.  I tried some of the famous champagnes in the world, I tried some pink champagne (see my post of pink champagne for my thoughts on this), and I learned a little bit about champagne, but didn't walk away with a bottle.  Next stop was the Australian section.  I tried an Australian Gewurztraminer and an Australian Tempranillo, two varietals that I'd never seen from Australia.  I was generally impressed with them, but not impressed enough to buy one of them.  I think I'll give Australia a few more years before buying into anything from them except Shiraz, but I think they are in for some good times in the future.  From there, I moved onto more Aussie wine.  This stop was on the lower end of the Aussie spectrum, but again offered more interesting wines.  I tried several expressions of Shiraz that were from vines over 100 years old.  I had no idea there were vines that old in Australia, but you learn something new every day.  Also included in this tasting was a Riesling from Australia which was very tempting, but ultimately didn't find its way into my basket.  The last wine from this stop was a Shiraz and Viognier blend.  I had never seen this combination before, and despite my thought that a white grape and red grape would produce something light and rose-ish, it turned out to be an inky black wine that was incredibly dark, structured, and just great to drink.  And, at just $10 per bottle, this wine made it into my basket along with the Amarone.  This will be a wine to drink when I want to have something unique.

The last stops were in the domestic wine department.  I went into the corner of the tent to a guy that was all alone with a few open bottles in front of him.  I said hello, asked what he was pouring, and was on my way to trying several Bordeaux blends from Sonoma.  His first wine didn't impress me much, but the second was great.  The second was labeled a Cabernet, but was only the legally required 75 percent Cabernet, mixed with the other Bordeaux varietals.  This wine, marked down from 50 to 30 dollars also found its way into my basket.  As I picked up the wine, he asked me if he wanted a signature on the bottle.  I had no idea that this guy I'd been chatting with was the winemaker, but as it turned out, he was.  He asked me what I wanted on the bottle, so I told him to write a date on the bottle to open it up.  He simply wrote: "drink it now" along with his signature.  He then went onto explain that he thought that wine should be had when it was still young and unspoiled by too much age, and that too many people treat wine as a collectible, when in fact, it is meant to be enjoyed.  He told me to open it young, which I intend to do.  I'll write a post about aging wine later, and while I agree with some of his points, I also think he was a bit severe in his judgment of wine aging.  I tried some more domestic wine on my tour of the tent, but didn't walk away with any more bottles.  Just the 3 that I picked up from my tastings were enough for me.  And, while I wish that I could spend about 5000 dollars there, I think that going into an experience like that, the knowledge that you gain from the wine makers and fellow wine lovers in the crowd will ultimately mean more than the wine you buy does. 
Not many stores can pull off a wine sale like Wally's can.  I don't know of any local stores that can persuade people from all corners of the globe to come, sell their wine at low prices, and pour free samples at their sale.  I also don't know of many stores that will place cases of precious first-growth Bordeaux out in a parking lot for people to pick up at their leisure.  Wally's is a unique wine store, and I've learned that it is one of the most respected wine stores in the United States, if not the world.  If you are anywhere near Los Angeles, I highly recommend that you stop by the store sometime, you don't even have to buy anything, just looking through their inventory is an adventure in and of itself.
My stop at Wally's was a nice start to my day marooned in West Los Angeles.  From there, I saw a movie, had a nice lunch, and then revisited the store with my friends later in the day.  At the end of the day, my car finally finished, I was ready to leave that little area I'd been chained to, and to head back home.
Today, at our Sunday dinner, wine was king once again.  It seems that my friends have begun to appreciate good wine as much as I have.  We had a nice Barbera, a Syrah, a Pinot Noir, Rosso di Montalcino, late harvest Chardonnay, and a blend open at dinner, all of which were great.  I like these dinners because everyone has the attitude that they want their friends to try good wine, so we share everything and get to drink some quality stuff without having to buy it all ourselves. 

I can't wait for Wally's next tent sale, but more immediately, I'm looking forward to next Sunday's dinner.  I'll have to break out something good for the occasion.  All in all, a great wine weekend.

Table Wine

One thing that I miss about European wine is the fact that most restaurants have their own “table wine.”  This house wine frequently comes in both red and white and is generally the varietal that is most common to the area.  The reason it bears the name table wine (or vin de pays, vino da tavola, etc) is that for whatever reason, it does not meet the government standards to be called anything more distinguished.  This does not mean that it is bad wine, it is just made in such a way that isn’t up to the high standards that the government has set for wine production in that particular country.  Frequently, table wines are of pretty high quality and are cheap.  Another good thing about table wine is the fact that you can order it in almost any quantity, ranging from just a glass to a liter or more.  This gives you more flexibility when ordering because you don’t have to buy a whole bottle for just one or two people, and you don’t have to buy multiple bottles to satisfy a large crowd.

Anytime good, local wine comes cheap at restaurants, I’m a fan.  I just wish that the states had some sort of equivalent to this European class of wine.  Next time you are travelling abroad and come across a place that has table wine, don’t overlook it.  Frequently, it is the wine the locals drink, of high quality, cheap, and just part of the experience of travelling abroad.

Cab Sav Mix Tape

Remember back when you would make mix tapes/CDs?  Well, I thought it might be fun to do this with a wine lineup.  These Cabernet Sauvignons all cost less than $20, and they are arranged in this order, making my wine mix tape.  Enjoy.

Note: I use words like track, album, and band interchangeably with wine terms.  So think track= individual wine, band= varietal, and album= compilation of wine listed here.

Track 1- Coppola Diamond Cab Sav ($15-$20).  You need a solid song to begin an album, so this wine starts the album and gets it going on a good note- it’s tasty, rich, and a good value.

Track 2- Sebastiani Sonoma Cab Sav ($18).  This wine is a great value and a great expression of the varietal.  It isn’t widely appreciated compared to others on this list, but it is a good second track that Cab fans will appreciate, even if the more band wagon fans hit skip on this track.

Track 3- Robert Mondavi Cab Sav Private Selection ($6-$10).  Track 3 is a blockbuster.  Not because it is particularly profound or good but because it is catchy and appeals to a lot of people.  Track 3 gets the music video and is the reason band wagon fans buy the album. 

Track 4- J Lohr Seven Oaks Cab Sav ($12-$15).  One of America’s most popular Cabs.  While this track doesn’t have the name recognition that Mondavi has, it is more likely to stand the test of time and be a hit with longer staying power.

Track 5- Barefoot Cab Sav ($6-$9). Catchy and popular, the hits keep on coming as you are drawn into the album.  Again, unlikely to be determined an ageless hit, but definitely one of those popular songs that will get a lot of play in the clubs for a few months.

Track 6- Wild Horse Cab Sav ($16-$20).  Taking a step back into a more serious mood, this is a great wine that will be appreciated by true wine fans and may be a bit too much for the common fan.  Could be too serious or too slow for some after the catchy hits, but this is definitely a track that can be deeply appreciated by true fans.

 Track 7- Chateau Ste. Michelle Cab Sav ($8-$10).  Track 7 is cheap, mass produced, and surprisingly good.  It might not get the publicity of the other hits on this album but it is every bit as deserving of the publicity as the others.

Track 8- Saddle Rock Cab Sav ($15). Those of you outside So Cal might not be able to find this one, but it makes the album as the band’s experimental track.  It’s interesting and good in its own right, but not the traditional taste of the band, and its differences are likely to turn all but the true fans away.

Track 9- Bogle Cab Sav ($10).  Another filler track.  This track has the typical band style, and is just good enough where people won’t just skip this track. It still probably lacks the power and quality to be considered a hit, and is unlikely to make it to the band’s greatest hits album.

Track 10- Gallo Family Vineyards Cab Sav ($6-$8).  Like track 3, this track is a hit and will definitely have a music video and drive the sales of this album.  Sometimes it is easy to confuse the two tracks because to the common fan they are pretty similar, but both have a wide enough appeal to make them hits.

Track 11- Frei Brothers Cab Sav ($18-$20).  An epic track as this album begins to come to a close.  Traditional of the band’s style that has great depth, but isn’t catchy enough to be as popular as many of the other tracks on the album.  Think of this as the song that has the great guitar solo and lyrics but doesn’t have the catchy chorus needed to appeal to the masses.

Track 12- Louis M Martini Cab Sav Sonoma ($15-$20). The last track on the album is one that its fans will thoroughly enjoy.  This track is vintage band style that leaves a good taste in your mouth but is also savvy enough to make you want more.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this way of looking at some of the power players in the Cabernet world.  I would recommend each of these wines to someone looking to learn more about Cabernet.  And, for people that don’t know much about wine, I think it is always best to relate it to something that you do know about.  So, next time you are in a wine shop looking for something good, tell the clerk what you are looking for in normal terms and leave the “full bodied and jammy” jargon at home.

Books on Wine

Some time ago, I decided to buy a book on wine just to see what some “experts” on the subject had to say on the subject.  I quickly learned that most books written on wine have several distinct characteristics.  The first of which is that they are as much about travel as they are about wine.  This means that after reading one book on wine, you probably have heard about the author’s favorite trip to Burgundy, Bordeaux, Tuscany, Napa Valley, and three or four other, “new frontiers” of wine (think Argentina, Germany, South Africa, Texas, etc.).  This means that once you have read one book on wine, you know the hot spots and reading a second or third book on wine means you’ll visit some familiar locations and the story can get repetitive.  Secondly, writers always place their emphasis on relationships in the wine industry.  They will go on and on about a person they like dealing with, or a particular location that sticks out in their mind, all the while, trying to connect with the reader.  I like this aspect of wine writing because I believe that wine is about more than just the act of drinking, it is about people, places, memories, and any other human emotion imaginable.  I do not like this aspect of wine writing because often writers try too hard to make this emotional connection and just come off as snobby, talking about “enchanted little Chateaux, housing wine over a century old.”  Third, wine writers generally do a fair amount of advocating in their books- they are quick to recommend wines they like or quick to call a particular vintage or region “the next big thing in wine.”  This is helpful, but can get old too.  I tend to think to myself, “I bought a book, not a commercial.”

I realize that there were a lot of negative sentiments toward wine writers in the previous, and while I do think that all my criticisms are fully warranted, I have to say that I truly enjoy reading books about wine.  Some people may be turned off by stories about the authors going to Bordeaux, and all of the other famous wine regions on business trips, eating nice meals, and drinking fabulous wine that would cost the normal consumer an arm and a leg, but to me they are fascinating stories.  My logic is that I am a) learning more about wine by hearing other people’s stories, and b) gaining knowledge for the day that I am able to take similar trips.

Without a doubt, my favorite book on wine is “The Accidental Connoisseur” by Lawrence Osborne.  The subtitle for this book is “An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World,” and that is part of what drew me to this book.  Osborne wasn’t a practiced wine critic, just a fan in search of the meaning of terroir.  Terroir can be a confusing concept to some (I’ll write more about it later), and the simplest definition is that it is the effect that the geography, geology, and weather have on a wine, but to some wine fanatics, it is much more than that.  Osborne tells a great story and gets to the heart of the question “what is terroir and why does it matter?”  If you are a wine fan, I highly recommend picking up this book.

For as good a writer as he is, Jay McInerney is not a good wine writer at all.  Remember my thoughts about wine books turning into a commercial?  If you want to see what I was talking about, open one of his books.  The two books on wine that I’ve seen him come out with are little more than his recommendations for a wide variety of wines with minimal story thrown in for filler.

If you want a book that looks into wine’s past a bit, pick up “The Billionaires Vinegar.”  This book tells the story of wine that was supposedly once owned by Thomas Jefferson.  The book tries to turn itself into a mystery, but it is more just a collection of stories from about some of the oldest bottles of wine on the planet and how they survived 200+ years.

Reading a book on wine is quite the time commitment, but no matter which book you read, if you decide to pick up a book on the subject, you will walk away with some great insight into the wine world and will be inspired to try some new wine.

A Short Guide to Wine Tasting

Wine tastings and tasting rooms can be intimidating to people that don’t know much about wine.  Trying several different wines in a short period of time can lead to the wines running together and may cause you to overlook a very good wine.

Luckily, there are several easy steps that you can take to get the most out of the tasting, and whether you feel like it or not, these steps will make you look like you know what you are doing.  Wine is a drink that plays on four of your senses- sight, smell, taste, and touch (some would argue that touch and taste are pretty much the same with wine, but I think they’re different).

The first sense that you have to engage is sight.  Look at the wine in the glass, and if possible, look at it in the light with a white back drop so you can get a clear picture of what the wine looks like.  Is it cloudy, clear, watery, evenly colored, etc.?  You’re not likely to want to drink a wine that is visually unappealing (I’m talking about a brown wine, or a wine with chunks of sediment or cork in it).  Now, make a quick mental note about the color and move onto the next step, smell.

Smell is what throws most people off when talking about wine.  Most wine critics will list off 5 or 6 aromas that they detect on the wine, but for the most part, casual drinkers will only be able to get one or two.  The important thing to remember when smelling a wine is to not be shy.  Swirl the wine around in your cup energetically because the more the air gets in there and opens up the wine, the easier it will be to discern scents.  Secondly, get your nose in the glass and take several short, deep sniffs.  Repeat as necessary.  Some people claim that smelling a wine with one nostril at a time will help you detect different scents, but I haven’t found this to be the case with me.  Talk about what you smell with the person conducting your tasting or your tasting companions, bouncing thoughts off of each other and re-assessing will help you make a more complete assessment of the wine’s aroma/bouquet.  Don’t be thrown off if someone smells something that you can’t or if you detect something that no one else does.  This doesn’t mean you’re wrong, just that something else jumped out at you.  Again, make notes in your mind and move on to the next step.

Taste and touch may seem like interchangeable words with a liquid because the only touching of the wine you are doing is with your mouth, the mouth that also tastes.  I argue that they are both independently applicable to wine drinking because a wine’s tastes will be different than a wine’s feel in your mouth.  Think about it, wine can taste like fruit, like spice, etc.  But, wine can also feel round, sharp, acidic (stinging), tannic (dry your mouth, make you pucker).  Look at it this way, for your first sip of the wine, play with it on your tongue and try to get an accurate read on the tastes in the wine.  Again, this may be a tough and intimidating task, but just think about anything that comes to mind.  There are times that I’ve pretty accurately described a wine by comparing them to a person, car, movie, or other completely unrelated object.  Wine will taste like some combination of spice and fruit, etc. but these tastes are often hard to describe, so thinking about it in terms that are more comfortable to you will help.  Again, bounce ideas off of your friends and people working there.  For your next taste of wine, roll it around in your mouth for a good 10-15 seconds.  Still be alert for tastes while doing this, but more so than that, get a feel for how the wine feels in different parts of your mouth.  Does it sting your mouth, does it dry up your mouth, and does it make your mouth water?  Think about these different aspects.  This is what I think of as the feel of a wine.  A wine that is too acidic, too tannic, too alcoholic, etc. can be a sign that the wine is too old, too young, or just poorly made.  For this reason, I think that touch is an important part of the wine tasting process.

Take all of these factors into account when tasting wine.  This seems like a chore at first, but with just a bit of practice, it will enhance your understanding of the wine and will hopefully help you remember it better so you can compare it to others that you will taste and begin to build up a mental library of wines tasted.  And, on tasting trips, it will help you decide which wines to buy and which ones to pass up.

This is a lot to do, especially when tasting 5+ wines at a winery, and multiply that by the 5+ wineries you can visit on a single weekend trip, and even for an experienced drinker, that can be too much to remember.  So, one tip is to take notes.  Every tasting room I’ve been to has had a list of the wines that they taste, printed out on a piece of paper that you can take notes on/keep if you want to.  Be sure to pick one of these up.  Also, ask for a pen or pencil (or carry your own) so that you can make notes.  The helpful thing about the tasting notes provided by the winery is that they will already have some of the important information on them, so just fill in with your own personal notes.  Also, when planning a trip, do a bit of research beforehand.  Pick out wineries that you want to visit, research varietals to keep an eye out for in a particular region, etc.  Have a game plan.  Lastly, don’t be afraid to spit.  Wine does have alcohol in it, so consuming too much can not only make you incapable of driving, it can impair your senses and make it impossible to taste anything meaningful or remember anything about the wine.  Tasting rooms have spittoons that you can use whenever.  It isn’t rude and it won’t offend the people working there.  It is protocol.  In Europe, people spit on the floor of wineries, it’s just what you do.  Get a good taste of the wine and calmly spit into the designated area.  If you look like you know what you are doing, no one will ever question you.  Basically, just do it and don’t make it a big deal.

Hopefully this will take a bit of the edge off of the intimidating situation that is wine tasting.  Remember the goal in tasting is to learn more and find out about stuff you like.  At the end of the day, your taste is the only one that matters, so don’t be intimidated by people that may seem to know more than you.  You always know more about your palate than even the most accomplished wine critic.

The Future of Wine Marketing

Major publications like the New York Times and Wine Spectator have recently written that the wine industry is at a crossroads.  With the economic recession and the millennial generation coming of age, wineries are forced to change their marketing practices to meet the changing demand.  In the past, small wineries could count on their tasting rooms to sell most of their wine, and that, coupled with their wine clubs was enough to provide sustainability. 

With the market saturated with wine that is constantly increasing in quality, many customers have turned their focus toward value.  This shift of trading some of the prestige of expensive wine for the frugality of buying value wine has made created new problems for some wineries, but for wineries that are willing to adapt to the future of the market, this is a great opportunity.

Today, there are a number of widely used social media sites that provide free exposure to brands that are willing to put in the effort to master their uses.  Facebook, Twitter, and blogs (among others) have revolutionized communication and put people in touch in a way that was unimaginable even 10 years ago.  For businesses, these social media engines are an opportunity to advertise for free, and an opportunity to advertise to an entirely new target audience. 

In a recent issue of Wine Spectator, it was written that the generation that has come of age in the last ten years has gotten interested in wine at a younger age than previous generation.  This means that an industry that is steeped in tradition will soon have to change to cater to the generation that is quickly becoming its largest consumer base.  Fortunately, this generation is the one that grew up using the internet and is generally most heavily rooted in social media engines like Facebook and Twitter.  For wineries, this means that catering to their new customers can be done effectively and cheaply, but it will take an effort to learn about these new means of advertising.

As a member of this emerging generation that dominates the market when it comes to wine sales, I have to say that the way I learn about most new wines is online.  Granted, I do not subscribe to any winery facebook pages or twitter accounts, but I do check online deals often and I am inclined to research a product online, especially if it is a more expensive purchase.  Heck, I even bought Bordeaux futures online the other day.  I would love to see a winery master the uses of social media and begin to cater to what I am looking for in wine and in available information.  Gallo has done a good job thus far as they have a wine-food pairing function on their website that will allow users to pick a meal and their programs will choose a wine to match that meal.  I have used this function multiple times, bought the suggested wines and have been happy with it.

The notion of the “wine club” is also changing.  Wine Spectator now rates more wines online than they do in print.  Virtually all wineries have websites and conduct orders through those websites, and while tasting rooms will always provide a valuable connection to the relationship of people, place, and wine, tasting rooms are not the only place where this connection can take place.  Having a wine club that offers more ways to reach out to customers will allow for casual drinkers to learn about the winery and the spirit of the wine without travelling to the site.  Social media makes this easier and more comfortable than it ever has been. 

With producers from all corners of the world in competition, people have more choices than ever when it comes to what wine they will purchase.  And, while I likely did more to raise questions about what is next for wine marketing and social media than actually answer them, I hope this post was interesting and will make you aware of the changing face of the industry.  Take a look at wineries online.  Google “wine club,” to see what pops up.  Check out your favorite winery on Facebook.  There is a whole new world of advertising available to this tradition laden industry, and the extent to which wineries use these new means of advertisement could shape the wine industry for generations to come.

A (Modest) Defense of Merlot

Ever since Paul Giamatti vowed not to drink Merlot in the movie “Sideways,” the varietal has gotten a bad rap of sorts among some wine lovers.  I’ve even been accused of having it out for Merlot (see the comment from my Start Liking Wine post), but it just isn’t true.  I have nothing against Merlot, I enjoy it on the whole.  My problem with Merlot, and the reason I don’t drink the varietal more often is that it is a red wine, and being a red wine, it has more competition from other varietals that I just flat out like better.

I’ve said many times that Chianti is my favorite type of wine; I’ve also written about how I like Rioja, I love Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, wines made with the Barbera grape, Nero d’ Avola, Pinot Noir, and the list goes on and on.  So, with so much competition, I just don’t get around to drinking as much Merlot as I do other varietals.  It is rare that I will walk down the aisle of a grocery store or wine shop and have a bottle of Merlot catch my eye over some of my favorites.

Merlot can be great, both as a stand along varietal, and as a blending grape.  Some of the best wines in the world are blends that are contain significant amounts of Merlot (think Bordeaux).  But, most of my exposure to Merlot has come in the form of the wine that Paul Giamatti cannot stand (side note: in “Sideways,” Giamatti’s prized bottle of wine, a 1961 Cheval Blanc contains about 40% Merlot), Merlot as a standalone varietal.  I enjoy Merlot because it is a diverse wine- it can be either full or light, depending on the location and style in which it is made.  This makes the wine a bit tricky though, you can end up with a heavier version than you might have wanted, or lighter than you anticipated.  So, safe bets for Merlot are brands, or at least regions, that you are familiar with.  On the whole, I would classify Merlot as a smooth wine, so it is pretty easy to drink and pretty easy to pair with a wide variety of dishes.  But while I like all of these things about it, I have to reiterate that it has to compete with all the other red varietals, so for that reason alone, it doesn’t get much love from me.

Think about it: when you have a steak, you want a big, bold wine to go with it (Cab Sav, Syrah, Bordeaux, etc.).  When you have pasta, you go Italian.  Asian and Mexican food generally leads you to white wine.  There just aren’t a whole lot of foods that immediately jump out to me as slam dunk pairings with Merlot (but, Merlot would pair decently well with any of them).  I will say that I could see pizza being a good partner for Merlot (if I decide to take a break from Chianti or don’t happen to have any on hand).  I’ll have to try that pairing next time and report back. 

So Merlot generally gets a thumbs up from me but there isn’t a whole lot of space in my world of red wine for it to get too much playing time.

Brunello di Montalcino

When I can afford it, Brunello di Montalcino is my wine of choice.  It is made with the Sangiovese grape, like my everyday favorite, Chianti, but Brunello is the full expression of what the grape can become.  Brunello can only be produced in a tiny town in Tuscany, Montalcino, and its production is heavily regulated by the Italian government so they can ensure that only the best bears the name Brunello.

I fell in love with wine in Italy, and while I didn’t get to drink Brunello all that often, I had some meaningful exposure to it early in my wine drinking career.  And, since returning to the states, I have tried to always have a bottle or two on hand for those times that I have a craving for it.

Now, Brunello can be frustrating for several reasons.  First and foremost, it is one of those wines that have the potential to age forever, so when you buy a bottle, (ideally) you have to play the waiting game to wait for the wine to hit its “peak.”  This can be frustrating because after spending 50+ dollars on wine, you are likely going to want to drink it.  And, waiting too long to open it can cause the wine to start to decline and not be as good as it once was.  Also, when you do open a bottle, it is recommended that you open it 9+ hours before drinking it.  This means you have to open a bottle to drink at dinner while you are eating breakfast.  This is a pain, but also kind of nice because you get to start your day with the promise of Brunello and have it to look forward to all day long. 

Part of my attraction to Brunello comes from the fact that 3 of the great vintages of recent history for the wine have been the years that I happened to live in Italy.  1997 was considered one of the best vintages in history, 2004 was very good, and reports are that 2006 (not yet released) is way up there as well.  I think that I am just a good luck charm for the wine, so maybe I should move to Italy to ensure that every vintage is perfect.  I’m not usually one for discriminating based on vintages because bad wines can be found in good vintages and vice versa, but my living in Italy trend and the quality of Brunello from each year was too much for me to overlook. 

Just the other night was one of those rare nights that I got to open up a bottle of Brunello.  This one was from 2003, and even at 8 years old, it was extremely young tasting (they mellow out a bit with age and gain some depth).  Granted, I had this wine at a restaurant with a friend and we didn’t get to open it 9 hours early like we should have, but it was still an incredible wine and we got to experience one of the great traits of wine- it evolved with each glass.  As the wine reacted to the air being swirled around the glass and the bottle, the wine opened up so that the first glass was different than last.  Wine is alive in its bottle, and when it dies, it turns to vinegar.  If you want proof that wine is alive, try a bottle of Brunello or young Bordeaux and see how it evolves from the moment you open the bottle until the minute you pour the last glass.

Because opening a bottle of Brunello is a special occasion, it demands a good meal to go with it.  The other night, we had pappardelle al cinghiale (pasta with boar), a classic Tuscan dish, and perfect to pair with the wine.  Good steaks also pair extremely well with the Brunello, you just have to be sure that you eat a meal that will stand up to, thus enhancing the wine, rather than a meal that will just be overpowered by the wine. 

If you like wine and haven’t had the opportunity to try a Brunello yet, I highly recommend it.  It is likely to be a fairly expensive bottle, but it’ll be worth it.

Start Liking Wine

In the spirit of yesterday’s post, I’ve decided to further aid my roommate in his quest to begin liking wine by giving some actual recommendations for him to try out as he learns to like wine.  Yesterday, I worked on the mental aspect for him and wine, today is the physical aspect, so here it goes.

If someone is just beginning to explore wine and hasn’t quite developed a taste for it yet, I would recommend that they start by drinking white wine.  I think that overall, it is a bit more user friendly than red is.  And, when you first start drinking wine, you aren’t necessary looking for the best, you are looking for something that will act as a stepping stone- something that you can enjoy and that will enhance your appreciation of the next bottle that you drink. 

Starting with a Chardonnay would probably be the easiest thing to do.  I make this suggestion for 2 reasons- 1 because there is a ton of Chardonnay available at every store and restaurant, and 2 because it is easy to drink and, when made even half way decently, it tastes pretty good.  Try a Barefoot Chardonnay.  It is cheap, fruity, and not over oaked, meaning that it should be smooth and friendly.  When buying wine, remember that it isn’t necessarily about how much you spend but whether or not you like the wine.  Aka, ignore the stigma that comes with price tags (especially when the price is on the low side) low prices don’t always mean bad wine and high prices don’t guarantee good wines.

After the Chardonnay, I would move onto a Riesling.  Chateau Ste. Michelle makes a good one and, again it is cheap.  The move from Chardonnay to Riesling will show drinkers the variety that different varietals can offer.  The Riesling will be lighter, and will be more acidic (stinging the tongue a bit), but it will also be fruitier.  You will taste citrus fruits (acid), melons, pears, and any number of other fruits.  It is a great wine to drink cold on a warm day.

Now is when we move onto the red wines.  I’m going to suggest that new drinkers start with a Pinot Noir.  I pick the Pinot Noir because they are light, fruity, but also have the earthy tones that you can find in some other types of red wine, making it a good introduction to the heavier wines.  For this varietal, the recommendation is La Crema Pinot Noir from Sonoma.  This is a middle class Pinot that will be a bit more expensive than the whites, but one that is a good “gateway” wine for people moving down the path into wine appreciation.

After the Pinot, we move onto Chianti, my favorite.  Again, this is a softer, medium red that is easier to drink than some of the big, spicy, heavy varietals out there.  For my money, Da Vinci makes one of the best Chiantis out there (widely distributed in the US that is).  Chianti is a fun wine.  It has a bit of everything that a red wine should- fruit, spice, earth, drinkability, etc.  Hopefully by this point, you are beginning to realize the differences in types of flavors a wine has, even if you can’t specify them individually.

Last on this list is a Cabernet Sauvignon- the most popular red wine in the United States.  This heavy red will have dark fruit flavors and will also occasionally taste like the soil in which the grapes were grown, leather, tobacco, pepper, and other spices.  For this one, try a Merryvale Starmont.  It is a good wine, straightforward and will give you a great example of a good Cabernet, and will hopefully open your eyes to all that wine has to offer.

Now, with all the wine that I’ve recommended, I would suggest that you have it with food.  Wine is better with food, especially when you are just beginning to appreciate it.  Pairing wine with food can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t need to be.  As a general rule, just pair the color of the wine to the color of the food.  Dark meat, red wine.  Light meat, white wine.  This works pretty well and will usually give you a decent pairing.

Happy drinking!  Hope you enjoy the suggestions and hopefully it helps people out as they try to appreciate wine.

Why All Guys Should Like Wine.

I just had a roommate move into my apartment, and when I offered him some wine the other day, he declined saying he “doesn’t like wine.”  I responded by saying: “you’ll learn.”

That got me thinking about how/why people (men in particular) could not like wine.  True, it does taste pretty awful until you gain a taste for it and an appreciation for it, but so does beer.  True, Sauvignon Blanc can taste like minerals and have vegetal tastes/smells, and red wines can taste of earth, leather, and tobacco, all of which don’t sound appealing at all, but not liking wine on the whole?  I can’t understand it or justify it with any kind of argument.  So I’ll do the opposite.  I’m going to make the argument that all men should like wine.

Reason 1, women like wine.  In America, something like 75% of wine is purchased by women and 60% of wine is consumed by women.  So, since most men my age have the goal of getting with a woman, it would benefit a guy to develop a liking for wine to improve his chances with the majority of females that drink wine.

Reason 2, it is much more likely that women judge men for drinking whiskey or beer than it is for them to judge men for drinking wine.  Think about it, drink too much whiskey and you’re an alcoholic, drink too much beer, and you get a “beer belly.”  Drink too much wine?  You’re cultured.  Ok, so this paragraph was a bit harsh on females and quick to jump to conclusions, but you get the picture.  Wine doesn’t carry the negative vibes that other forms of alcohol do.

Reason 3, wine is the ultimate guy drink.  Why?  Because most people don’t know a whole lot about wine so it lets guys boost their egos by talking knowledgably about wine.  And, since wine is so complex and every taste is different to every person, guys can bs their way through it if they sound confident and opinionated.

Reason 4, more so than other beverages, wine can be a status symbol.  If you have a date you want to impress, break out a good bottle of wine.  If you want to impress the in-laws, bring a nice bottle of wine to dinner.  Need a gift for a client or a boss, buy them wine.  Quite apart from drinking wine for pleasure, it is one of the most useful drinks out there to make impressions on people.

I’ll have to update this list as more ideas come to mind, and will probably refine the reasons that I have already stated, but all in all, there is no downside to liking wine.  It can help you out in so many different ways throughout the course of your life.  So, roommate, keep drinking and you’ll learn to appreciate wine.