“I don’t know… should I tell the WC about this wine for the Hall of Fame?”
The 2022 $10 Hall of Fame and Cheap Wine of the Year are just a month away — and let’s not overlook the blog as a holiday gift
Want to nominate a wine for the Hall of Fame or Cheap Wine of the Year? Then do it soon, since I’m already sorting, collating, and reviewing tasting notes for the 2022 versions of each. The blog’s schedule for the rest of the year includes:
• Christmas and New Year’s wine ideas on Dec. 17 and Dec. 23.
• The 2022 $10 Hall of Fame will make its 15th appearance on Jan. 7, and the 2022 Cheap Wine of the Year will post on Jan. 6. As always, email me with suggestions for either or leave them in the comments. Eligibility rules are here. Keep in mind the wine should cost less than $12 or $13, should be generally available, and can’t be a private label sold exclusively by one retailer.
The Wine Curmudgeon’s holiday wine gift guide 2021 — which, of course, includes things that aren’t wine
Do a Google search for wine gifts, and they tend to repeat each other — as if one gift guide borrowed from another gift guide which borrowed from another gift guide. Consider this waterproof Bluetooth glass holder so you can listen to tunes and drink wine while in the shower. It showed up in so many gift roundups that it’s sold out.
Which, of course, we don’t do here. Hence, the blog’s 2021 holiday wine gift guide, which includes things that aren’t wine. And, as always, keep the blog’s wine gift buying guidelines in mind:
• Steven Spurrier: A Life in Wine ($45): Spurrier, who died this year, could have been the most important wine writer in those ancient, pre-Parker days. If he had not held the Judgment of Paris, who knows how long it would have taken California wine to take its place in the world? But Spurrier was much more than a wine writer; he was also an important wine educator and leading wine merchant who owned a wine shop in Paris — hardly something most Britons would do.
• Smith-Madrone’s riesling ($35, sample, 12.9%) is a wine that reminds me just how amazing wine can be. For one thing, California doesn’t do much riesling, and it certainly doesn’t do much well. But this one is a revelation, combining California-style fruitiness with the varietal characteristics that make great riesling so much fun to drink. That means lime zest, a bit of tingliness in the back, a hint of petrol, some sweetness floating around to remind you it’s riesling, just enough acidity to greet the sweetness, and stoniness in the finish.
• Regular visitors know that the Wine Curmudgeon is not much for wine gadgets; he’d rather buy wine. Still, there’s something about this metal foil cutter ($25) that strikes me as worthwhile. Too many bottles still have foil caps and too many of those refuse to come off with a twist. And, frankly, using a waiter’s corkscrew to remove the foil leads to cursing and cut fingers. So why not a foil cutter?
• Laherte Freres Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature ($50, purchased, 12.5%) is an amazing bubbly, everything that Champagne – the sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France – should be, and especially for those of us who prefer a cleaner, more minerally style. One estimate gives it another 20 years in the bottle, and I wouldn’t argue with that at all.
And, finally — shameless plug alert! — give the blog as a gift: One year of the newsletter at 20 percent off, just $56. Click this link to send a gift subscription. Use the email address of the person you’re giving the subscription to where it asks for an email, add a credit card, and they’ll get the $10 Hall of Fame, the Cheap Wine of the Year, and all of the rest — plus the rants and analysis that have made the blog what it is.
“I know I saw a bottle of white zinfandel in there. I demand to know who brought it!”
No, wine shaming is not OK, and six other things we don’t need when it comes to holiday wine
Almost everyone who writes about wine – whether Winestream or Mainstream Media – laments how difficult it is to do wine for the holidays.
Phooey.
So when I saw this post from Lifehacker, I thought: We need something like that for holiday wine. Hence, seven things that should be banned from the holiday wine experience:
1. Bragging about how cheap the wine was. Even the Wine Curmudgeon is sometimes guilty of that, for which I am always severely reprimanded. The point, or course, is that the wine is enjoyable. Price only matters if someone asks.
2. Bragging about how expensive the wine was. The WC has never done this – but those of you who have done it know exactly who you are.
3. Bringing a bottle of wine to dinner that no one but you has ever heard of or could possibly like — because, of course, the goal is to show you know more about wine than anyone else.
4. Bringing Two-buck Chuck, Winking Owl, or any of the others in the $3 wine reviews to dinner because they’re cheap and for no other reason. It’s a holiday, dammit. It’s OK to spend $10 for wine for the people that you care most about.
5. Wine shaming (see No. 3). In other words, when you see a bottle of white zinfandel or Apothic on the table, it’s not OK to snigger, point to the bottle, and make a snarky comment.
6. Launching into an interminable discussion about wine and food pairings and how you spent three weeks and consulted seven sommeliers to find the perfect wine for this particular holiday dinner (see No. 3 again). No one cares. And why should they?
7. “Taste this, it’s really good,” and making someone try something they obviously don’t want to try. Wine is not a mud pie to force on your little sister, so don’t treat it like one.
No, Portugal, Lancer’s is not your problem in the U.S.
They’re cheap, they’re well made, and they’re mostly available – so what’s the catch?
Portuguese wines are cheap, well-made and mostly available. So why aren’t we drinking more of them?
My pal Tim McNally and I have been discussing this quite a bit lately. Tim, the award-winning writer, wine judge, and New Orleans radio host, is baffled by Portugal’s lack of success in the U.S. One recent survey about popular imports included Australia, even though Australian wine hasn’t mattered much in the U.S. in years.
“Why the hell can’t Portugal crack the sales market?” he asked me. “Good wines, delightful qualities, and cheap. But Portugal is a perennial also-ran.”
I’ve noticed the same thing, and have done my best over the past 18 months to change that. Want a cheap, well-made white for parties or when friends come over? Portugal has vinho verde. Want some sturdy, affordable reds for dinner? Then there are only a couple of dozen to choose from. Want whites that do the same thing? Again, many to choose from.
So what’s the catch? Three things stand out:
• Not quite understanding the U.S. market. One leading Portuguese wine type recently blamed his country’s lack of success on old-fashioned (and very plonk-y) wines like Lancer’s and Mateus. But neither have been popular for 30 years, and hardly anyone buying wine these days knows what they are.
• Targeting the wrong audience. If you’re worried about Lancer’s and Mateus, then you’re chasing the wrong audience. Focus on young people, Portugal, young people. I can buy a quality 1-liter bottle of vinho verde – apple-y, slightly sweet, and a little fizzy – for $8. Am I the only who thinks that’s more fun to drink than a can of hard seltzer?
• Supermarkets and their increasing importance in selling wine. More than half the wine sold in the U.S. is sold by grocers, but the biggest Big Wine companies dominate the business. That leaves little room for Portugal on the shelves among the all of the 19 Crimes, Apothic, and Barefoot. Still, I find it difficult to believe that a country with a centuries-old wine business can’t figure out a solution to that problem.
• The 2022 $10 Hall of Fame will make its 15th appearance on Jan. 7, and the 2022 Cheap Wine of the Year will post on Jan. 6. As always, email me with suggestions for either or leave them in the comments. Eligibility rules are here. Keep in mind the wine should cost less than $12 or $13, should be generally available, and can’t be a private label sold exclusively by one retailer.
Not to worry — restaurants make money when they offer BYOB.
This edition of Ask the WC: The BYOB conundrum, wine for friends who don’t necessarily drink wine, and California’s 2021 wildfire season
Because the customers always have questions, and the Wine Curmudgeon has answers in this irregular feature. You can Ask the Wine Curmudgeon a wine-related question by clicking here.
Dear Wine Curmudgeon:
So this BYOB thing doesn’t track for me. Why should a restaurant — which seems to make so much money from wine — let me bring my own wine? Perplexed diner
Dear Diner:
BYOB — or bring your own bottle — has long been part of restaurant wine. The reasons vary: Some restaurants offer it because they don’t want to bother with the aggravation that is a liquor license, while some see BYOB as adding value to their wine offerings. In addition, in some states, it’s legal to do BYOB but not legal to sell alcohol and some states forbid it. And don’t worry about restaurants being short-changed. Most that do BYOB charge what’s called a corkage fee, say $10 a bottle, for each bottle you bring in. I’ve long been a proponent of BYOB, since it gives diners who might not was to spend $75 for a bottle a chance to drink wine with dinner. This, of course, has elicited harsh criticism from many of my colleagues.
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Hey WC:
Most of my friends don’t drink wine — when there’s a party, I’m about the only one who brings any, and hardly anyone drinks it. So what kind of wine should I bring? It’s kind of embarrassing to have take two mostly full bottles home with me. Embarrassed
Dear Embarrassed:
Bring rose, even if it’s a little sweet, and make sure it’s as cold as possible — so, if necessary, put some ice cubes in it. The idea is to let everyone know that wine is as just as much fun as some overpriced carbonated water with a bit of booze and fruit flavoring. And rose, of course, is the natural version of that stuff.
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Hello, Wine Curmudgeon:
I haven’t seen much on the blog this summer about the California wildfires. How have they affected the wine country? Watching the news
Dear News:
That there hasn’t been much news is good news. This has been another difficult fire season, but — so far — the fires haven’t affected the state’s wine regions too much. I’ve talked to several producers who have said they’ve mostly been able to finish harvest without too much worry about fires. This, of course, is far different from the past couple of years.
Happy birthday — now let’s drink my birthday wine.
This edition of Ask the WC: Wine as a birthday present, plus buying larger bottles and making sense of on-line wine
Because the customers always have questions, and the Wine Curmudgeon has answers in this irregular feature. You can Ask the Wine Curmudgeon a wine-related question by clicking here.
Hi, WC:
I can’t find anything on the blog about buying wine as a birthday present — lots of wine for holidays and Christmas, but not birthdays. How did you miss that? Birthday shopper
Dear Birthday:
That’s a good point, and one would have thought I’d have touched on the subject once or twice in almost 14 years. General guidance — buy someone what will they like, and not what you think they should like. Plus, of course, bubbly. More specifically, wine for a birthday (or similar special occasion) is about memories — reminding someone about a wonderful experience they once had or something they did with you that neither of you will ever want to forget. I can buy a certain bottle of sparkling wine, and still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I drank it.
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Hello, Wine Curmudgeon:
A friend sent me this article about wine in larger bottles. Needless to say, it didn’t make much sense to me. Can you explain? Confused
Dear Confused:
Ah, the wine geek larger bottle story. No wonder you were confused. The wine geek theory goes that the world’s best wines last longer and age more gracefully if they’re in larger bottles, as opposed to the standard 750 ml bottle. So most of the information in the story doesn’t apply to most wine drinkers, since we don’t regularly spend $100 for a bottle of wine, regardless of size. Besides, as happens very time I buy a 1.5-liter bottle of the La Vieille Ferme rose (which is the equivalent of two standard bottles), I drink too much of it. And I’m a professional and should know better.
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Hey WC:
I’m a fairly traditional wine shopper, which means I either buy it at the market or at Costco or a chain retailer. So, needless to say, I’ve been confused by this on-line and delivery stuff. Do you have any words of wisdom? Retail shopper
Dear Retail:
The biggest problem with on-line wine (save for delivery charges) is that you can’t read the label — so no idea about alcohol levels, the grapes in the blend, and he importer (if there is one) without a lot of Googling. And there’s no guarantee about vintage, either. Otherwise, it’s not that much different. I wrote a post about it here; just find a decent on-line retailer and go from there.
