Re: How to buy wine

Lots of good tips in this thread. (FAQ material, maybe???)

"santiago" in news:Xns9B7C70BDD7B31openabottleofchateau@212.89.0.29...

EGG-zactly! (as the late Edward Andrews might say*). I like good, subtle Pinots Noirs. Many of them come from Burgundy, where the Challonaise (Givry, Mercurey, Montagny, Rully) is known as the value region, and even the prestigious regions yield some good values. Also California. My benchmark for a "value" fine wine is around US $10, up to $20 at most. Some people are surprised to learn how many such values have appeared in US markets from Burgundy the last 30 years, because people (especially who only know a little of the subject) never tire of confidently stereotyping Burgundy as "expensive." I've found (and posted) several dozens of such values (a thread here on AFW with many contributions by current posters appeared 16 Mar 2004, for example).

BUT! I seldom found those w> ...

I wonder if you realize Joel just how profound that comment is? I never saw the perverse irony of finding "value" wines via popular wine publications better demonstrated than in an episode at the Wine Club shop in silicon valley last decade. I was asking a manager about something when a brusque, impatient man maybe 45 years old barged into our conversation, WS in hand. While the merchant recoiled visibly at the man's rudeness (it actually took a few minutes for the manager to get over this, afterwards), the man demanded a "best-value" Chardonnay trumpeted in the magazine. As calmly as possible, the manager explained patiently that this wine was not available at the shop, nor any other retailer. Nor had it been available for six weeks, he added. Precisely _because_ the wine appeared in that article, causing everyone to demand it. (That was an anecdotal incident, but professionals occasionally study such things in more depth and report that the phenomenon is consistent.) Whether a wine is GOOD is unaffected by whether a popular publication says so. Price and availability, though, can be strongly affected.

Cheers-- M

• If I remember right, in _Elmer Gantry_ he kept repeating "KEE-rect!"