Date: Fri 01-Dec-1995
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?
