Wine News Review

Category: Feature Story

  • This New Year’s resolution will help you find better wines in the coming year

    In addition to being a cause for celebration, New Year’s Day is also cause for dread — at least for those among us who subscribe to the dreaded resolution ritual.

    The ritual is supposed to be a kind of antidote for the bad habits of the previous year. Problem is, those habits tend to be hard to break. So it’s the resolutions that get broken instead.

    Dreadfully predictable.

    But here’s a resolution worth considering, because it’s not hard to keep and because the rewards can be delicious: Buy better wine in the coming year!

    Let’s be clear about this — the key word is better not more expensive.

    There’s a big difference, as readers acquainted with the Wine News Review fairly frugal affordability index are well aware.

    It all comes down to doing a little homework before plunking down good money for a bottle whose taste doesn’t match its looks or label teaser.

    All the research help you need is on the Web, and I’ve spent the past couple weeks redesigning this blog to make it easier to find those resources:

    • On the upper right of this page is an updated Smarter Wine Search tool that lets you find reviews for a wide variety of wines by price and date of publication of the articles. It’s my own customized version of Google that only searches the websites of experts and news organizations that I’ve hand picked because of their reliability.
    • Underneath the banner at the top of this page are drop-down menus for the latest news reports about wine bargains, ranging from Beaujolais and Zinfandel to Chablis and Sauvignon Blanc.
    • And last but not least, at the very bottom of this page you’ll find links to everything from a food-pairing database to websites for comparative wine ratings. There’s also a collection of top wine lists from such respected sources as the Wine Testing Institute and Wine Spectator to the San Francisco Chronicle and The Wall Street Journal.

    I’ll be using these tools to buy better wine (and blogging about what I find, of course).

    And that’s my dread-free resolution for 2008.

      

  • Consumers are smartening up and getting more kicks from champagne bargains

    “I get no kick from champagne.
    Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all,
    So tell me why should it be true
    That I get a kick out of you”
    — Cole Porter

    With all due respect, Cole, an increasing number of us do indeed get a kick from champagne. Or for that matter, from sparkling wines in general.

    Particularly around that time of year when the confetti starts flying, the noise makers start making noise and New York’s Times Square holds its collective breath for the New Year’s ball to drop.

    As this recent USA TODAY article proclaims: “Bubbles are back.”

    Not since the buying frenzy of 1999, when people bought champagne in bulk to ring in the millennium, have U.S. champagne and sparkling wine sales been so high. Volume for 2007 is expected to hit 900 million glasses, up 4% over 2006, says the 2007 Impact Annual Wine Study.

    Among the things driving the rise in sales is heightened consumer education about price, flavors and food pairings, according to the article.

    So I thought I’d do my pre-holiday bit and bubble up a little know-how that could come in handy as you consider what sparkling wine to select.

    A good place to start is this tempting list of bubblies — “from bone-dry and austere to very fruity to sweet” — brought to us by the San Francisco Chronicle. (Affordability alert: This NV Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut, from one of California’s several French-owned sparkling wine producers, rings up at only $23 but earned three stars.)

    Speaking of affordability (or at least, relative affordability), Mike Steinberger at Slate reviews non-vintage champagne offerings, which unlike their vintage cousins are typically blended from wines from different years. Steinberger also cites the Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut, calling it “arguably the best-value bubbly on the market.”

    At Food & Wine, Ray Isle continues the non-vintage thread with five of his favorites to look for this holiday season.

    If you really can’t get enough of the stuff, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at The Washington Post offer some decadently tantalizing instructions on how to have A Sparkling Toast for Every Course.

    Concluding our educational focus:

    Happy New Year!

  • The ultimate guide to holiday wines, featuring top bargains from top experts

    Holidays were made for wine. Or is it the other way ’round?

    One thing we can all agree on, though, is that picking the right wine during this festive season is essential.

    You need to come up with a wine that pairs well with the food being served, that doesn’t cost more than you care to spend and that delivers the kind of flavors you favor. And perhaps most important of all, stands the test of that irksome relative or dinner guest who presumes to be a wine expert.

    Unless you’re in the habit of bringing along an indentured sommelier when you visit a wine shop, you may find yourself pounding the aisles in a ferment, so to speak, trying to divine the astrology of bottle shapes and label artistry.

    No need.

    All the wine stars are on the Web, and I’m here to point a few of them out, with a constellation of recommendations and top-wine lists to light your way.

    The trick is to do a little homework before going shopping. Jot down the names of bottles that interest you. Or better still, make some printouts. If your local shop doesn’t have a specific wine, ask for something similar.

    Let’s start off with an amazing competition held by the Beverage Testing Institute. More than  400 international and domestic wines were tasted blind by sommeliers and retailers to come up with bargain winners in the aptly named 2007 World Value Wine Challenge.

    Categories ranged from under $8, $10 and under, $15 and under and $20 and under, along with some exceptional value and special award winners. Everything from whites and reds to rosé and dessert wines.

    “These wines will hold their own with wines two and three times the price … choices for holiday parties and gifts; seek them out and save your money for other holiday treats,” say the wise men and women of the Institute.

    Next, let’s head over to Food & Wine, where the Holiday Wine Survival Guide: Ideal Party Wines serves up several very affordable picks ($10-$12).

    At The Wall Street Journal, Dorothy J. Gaiter And John Brecher decant their Top Wine Bargains of 2007:

    The world right now is awash in wine as country after country, from Austria to Uruguay, improves its winemaking and seeks to compete in the international marketplace.

    We went back over our blind tastings for 2007 to see how many wines that cost $10.99 or less rated Very Good or better. There were nine.

    If all these bargains don’t tempt you, you’ll find some higher-end selections at Wine Spectator, including Sauternes, Ports and exquisite-sounding sparkling varieties, along with suggestions for a buffet menu to accompany them.

    if you’re up for some even pricier numbers for your celebrations, two favorite reviewers, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at The Washington Post, serve up Just the Stuff for Roasts and Reveling. Most of the picks are $40 and up, although there a couple in the $20s.

    As Page and Dornenburg say, “It’s the perfect time to raise a toast to the roast — and to splurge a little.” In other words, this is the season to perhaps let the Wine News Review fairly frugal affordability index hibernate.

    But whatever you do, treat your wine with loving care, Page and Dornenburg advise:

    The medium- to full-bodied wines that grace your table this season need time to breathe before being served. Some of the reds we recommend this week benefited from being open for 40 minutes or more. Pour the wine into a decanter or, if you don’t have one, into wineglasses to expose more of the wine to air, which will help to open up and round out its flavors.

    Happy holidays!

  • Globetrotting food writer prepares a ‘Menu For Hope,’ and you can help serve

    Pim Techamuanvivit usually writes about her globetrotting adventures in the world of food.

    But this time of year, she focuses on the world of those for whom food is “not a mere indulgence but a matter of survival.”

    Pim, through her Chez Pim blog,  leads a far-flung charitable effort among food bloggers called Menu For Hope. The event last year raised nearly $61,000 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

    Giving has never been more delectable. For every $10 donation, you get a virtual raffle ticket that gives you a shot at a cornucopia of prizes.

    Items include everything from a New York City guided pizza tour or a one-night package at the Vermont Culinary Inn to a six-month Chef-on-Call subscription or a private episode of Wine Library TV with the irrepressible Gary Vaynerchuk (whose irrepressible videos appear regularly in this blog). Here’s the full list of prizes.

    This year’s proceeds will help support the school lunch program in the African nation of Lesotho.

    The program in Lesotho was chosen, Pim says, because it is a model in local procurement — buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. 

    Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistence farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there.

    We feed the kids, keep them in school, and support their parents and community farming. This sustainable approach to aid is something we believe in and strongly support.

    Inspired by the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia five years ago, the project is clearly a labor of love. Out of every $100 donated, nearly $87 will go directly to the school children and farmers in Lesotho, and 0% (zero) will go to Menu For Hope management. About $28,000 has been raised so far this year.

    The reason Pim started the program, and why you should consider contributing, is simple as pie: “We may never eradicate hunger from the face of the earth, but why should that stop us from trying?”

  • Find wine bargains with our aptly named Bargain Wine Search

    Searching for wines — at a price you want, with expert opinion to back up your choice — just got easier, with Wine News Review’s new, user-friendly Bargain Wine Search tool.

    For starters, this tool is designed to only index top wine websites, rather than the entire Web.

    That makes a big difference.

    It’s been said that the best thing about the Web is the huge amount of information it stores, and the worst thing about the Web is the huge amount of information it stores.

    In other words, sometimes more is actually less.

    That’s especially true when it comes to tracking down worthwhile information about wines. (To see what I mean, type “wine” into Google and you’ll find there are nearly 19 million citations.)

    The idea is that by limiting a search to the most authoritative sources — the ones that have a track record of accuracy instead of hype — the search results are more reliable. Also, the time spent to find what you’re looking for is shorter because there’s lots less clutter.

    Defining your search is a snap, with separate drop-down menus to (1) chose a wine type and (2) pick a price range. That’s it. No need to fiddle with confusing, hit-and-miss search terms or wade through endless links to unreliable websites.

    You’ll find this tool, a highly customized version of the Google search service, to be fast and solid. The sources that are indexed include more than 150 of the Web’s leading wine experts, most trusted wine bloggers and major news publications from around the world.

    You can also find links to the latest news reports about wine bargains, both white and red. These reports are continuously updated.

    Like everything else in cyberspace, of course, this is all a work in progress. Suggestions and even complaints are welcomed.