This week’s wine news: “No, you can’t ship wine,” plus one of Britain’s leading wine critics sort of endorses cheap wine and sommeliers take aim at overrated wine
• Not on Texas’ watch: The WC was in a Fed Ex store in Dallas last week when one of the employees was telling a phone customer, “No, we can’t ship wine.” Needless to say, I had to ask about the call. Yes, said the employee, we get a lot of those, and yes, they don’t understand why they can’t ship wine. And, he said, I know we can’t because it’s illegal in some way, but I don’t understand why it’s illegal. It’s just grape juice. Take that, WSWA! The WC laughed, offered a two-sentence description of the three-tier system, and told him to be on the lookout for holiday packages marked as olive oil. Which – and don’t ask me how I know this – has long been used to confuse Fed Ex and UPS when shipping wine.
• “Cheap wine”? Andrew Jefford, one of the leading critics in the United Kingdom, writes: “Drinking cheap wine need not be a cheap experience.” So another victory for the WC? Not exactly. The piece is more focused on Britain’s economy (or lack of same), what with near-record inflation, shortages, strikes, and all the rest. Jefford seems to be writing for the demographic that voted for Brexit and caused much of the pain, letting them know can survive without red Bordeaux and Champagne this holiday season. For one thing, he offers wine from the Loire in France as a cheap alternative, and the Loire hasn’t been affordable in the U.S. for years. And he doesn’t mention Spain, which is still cheap in the U.K.
• Overrated? VinePair asks sommeliers to name the most overrated wines in the world, and the results were surprising – or not surprising, given the wine business. “Champagne” is listed twice, as is Burgundy and Napa cabernet sauvignon – none of which the restaurant wine business would exist without. I was a bit surprised to see orange wine on the list, since sommeliers have played a key role in whatever popularity orange wine has. (Which isn’t much.)
