Rating Wines
The Wine Spectator recently came out with their yearly statistics. Once again Champagne is the highest rated wine. All Champagnes tasted rated 85 or better and 90% of all Champagnes rated scored 90 or better.In general, 38% of all wines tasted scored 90 or above. The average price of all wines tasted was $77 and the average price of a California Cabernet Sauvignon was $142 and 58% of them rated 90 or better. Oregon is still a great value as 56% of their wines scored 90 or better and the average price was $55.
Average prices are deceptive as they rate wines that cost hundreds of dollars and this brings up the average price. For example, the average price for Champagne was $97. I enjoy Champagne and lately I have had no problem in finding very good Champagnes for under $30 and special occasion Champagnes for under $70. Yet there are many Champagnes selling for over $200.
These prices bring to mind the never resolved issue regarding wine -do you need to spend lots of money to drink good wines? I don't think so but... We all have a tendency to shop for wine by price whether in a store or in a restaurant. After all money is an important concern for most of us. However if you have enough information to make an informed choice, I think that you will find that you can actually pick out wines that you want to drink and not spend more money than you want to spend.
Finding a good and reasonable priced wine
First you need to be somewhat adventurous. If all you drink is California Cabernet Sauvignons then as the Wine Spectator numbers show, you will be hard pressed to buy reasonably priced good wines. However if do some research you might be able to find a very good bottle from Washington or Chile. Most wine lists that I review appear to charge more for the wines that the restaurant thinks people will order. Put another way, the best values are on wines from areas that are not household names and from grapes that you may not be familiar with. For example a Syrah from California may be a very good value compared to a Syrah from Chateauneuf- du- Pape. However you need to know that if you like wines from CDP that many of them contain a significant amount of Syrah since the label may tell you the grape.
This gets back to understanding what is on a wine label. In the US and Australia for example, wines labels generally give the grape name. Chardonnay from Beringer. Lately winemakers are trying to have you buy the brand not the grape or region. Yellowtail, Menage au Trois, Layer Cake, The Prisoner, etc. are all examples of brands of wine.
In Europe wines are sold by the name of the area or the name of the winemaker. For example Chianti is a region and Ruffino is a winery that makes Chianti. If you like Ruffino Chianti, then you might try another Chianti that might be cheaper than Ruffino. Of course it also helps to know that Chianti is made of mostly the Sangiovese grape. You then might be able to find an Italian Sangiovese not called Chianti for less than a Chianti.It may appear to be complicated but if you concentrate on a few wine types that you like, the results may surprise you.
Lately my preference has been for lower alcohol, more rustic wines. I try avoid grapey fruit bombs. Riper grapes from warmer climates tend to product higher alcohol wines.Thus I have been drinking wines from Oregon, France, Italy, and New Zealand. Places within these countries include Willamette Valley, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Champagne, Marlborough, Chianti, and Piedmont.
Again read the label. All wines have their alcohol content on the label. Try to keep the alcohol to under 13.5%. I find that the lower alcohol wines have less impact on you, which I like.
Travel
Planning to do some travelling to warm weather islands and Zika, Dengue Fever and the like are driving me nuts. How do evaluate the risk of getting these diseases while on vacation? I think that we need to keep things in perspective. I just came back from Guadeloupe and there are potential Zika issues there. We had no problems and did not get any mosquito bites.
We are currently looking at going to the Big Island in Hawaii and guess what. They are having a Dengue Fever outbreak. We are trying to evaluate the situation but it is not easy. I try to remind myself that it is more dangerous to drive my car but that only helps a little. I think that we all tend to project the worst. I do know however that with the Internet we certainly know more about places all over the world than we knew 10 years ago. I am sure that there were many diseases abroad years ago but just did not know much about them. Maybe ignorance is bliss.
Wines of the moment
Try a wine from Burgundy in France. Bourgogne in French. Areas include Macon (white), Chablis (white) ,Cote de Beaune (red), Pommard (red), etc. Good wines from this area are hard to find and can be very expensive. Some reasonably priced areas are Irancy, Macon, Marsannay, etc. Lettie Teague writes about this area in her recent article.http://www.wsj.com/articles/burgundy-wines-that-wont-break-the-bank-1455740760 The main grapes of Burgundy are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The wines will be earthier and more austere than California. Try some from this region. Spend between $15 and $35 and see what you might like. Read up on the area. Be prepared to buy a terrible wine.
Enjoy!
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