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Date: Fri 01-Dec-1995

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Date: Fri 01-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-13

Quick Words:

Wine-Wisdom-Small-choice

Full Text:

More Choice Good News For Wine Drinkers (12/1/95)

Wine Wisdom-

By Steve Small

In case you hadn't noticed, there is an incredible amount of wine currently

available in the marketplace. You can stroll into your friendly neighborhood

wine shop and try wines from the states of Washington, Oregon, California, New

York and Connecticut. If you insist on crossing the border for wine, you can

find wines from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina,

Brazil, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Israel, France, Slovenia, Romania and

Hungary. And believe me, I am not even including the other regions whose wines

are not as readily available. What does this mean to us as wine drinkers? It

means good news! Wine drinkers now have more choice in every price range than

ever before. Today we will tour the world for bargains.

If Chardonnay is your drink of choice, Australia offers outstanding value.

Names like Seppelt, Lindemans, Rosemount, Jacobs Creek and Eagle Hawk all make

terrific Chardonnays for between $6 and $10. If you like Sauvignon Blanc,

California's Concannon and Geyser Peak are hard to beat.

However, South Africa's Boschendal and Chile's DeMartino are also quite good.

Italy's Pinot Grigio is turning up all over. At $7 a bottle, Mezzacorona is a

nice bottle of wine. Or you might try the same grape, called Pinot Gris, from

Oregon's King Estate. Finally, a nice dry riesling from Washington state's Ch.

Ste. Michelle or Germany's Deinhard can be quite refreshing.

Moving to reds, the wine of the moment is Merlot. Tasty merlots from southern

France include Fortant, Domaine de la Ferrandiere, and Domaine du Puget.

Chile's Santa Rita, Montes and Walnut Crest are also best-buy merlots. You

should not ignore Washington's Columbia Crest and Lindemans from Australia.

Another tasty red wine grape is called Syrah. This grape is often found in

Cotes du Rhone from France. Wines from Jaboulet and Guigal are consistently

delicious.

Similarly good blended wines from around the world are Cline's Cotes de Oakley

from California and Penfolds' Koonunga Hill from Australia. There are also

some excellent Chiantis, Cabernets, Zinfandels and Pinot Noir from around the

world I will have to discuss in another column.

To me, this is a particularly exciting time to enjoy wine. Winemakers from

around the world exchange ideas and techniques that result in better wines to

drink from every winemaking region in the world. The worldwide production also

keeps prices down because of the tremendous amount of competition.

The end result for those of us who enjoy wine is good wine at a fair price.

Isn't life great?

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