I don’t suppose any country, not even Great Britain, offers consumers as great a choice of wines as the United States. A mile from where I live, an emporium the size of an aircraft hangar sells more than 8000 labels from practically every wine-producing nation on earth.

As you would expect, its selection of US wines is rich beyond compare, and its range of South Americans, South Africans and Australasians is almost as wide. The choice of Italian wines is less spectacular, but still good. And the selection of Bordeaux is simply magnificent, everything from $16 bargains to $5000 eye-poppers.

So I feel rather churlish grumbling about this firm’s red Burgundies, but grumble I must. Read the rest of this entry »

Above all else I am a lover of the Pinot Noir grape. If I were compelled to drink only one wine for the rest of my life, that wine would undoubtedly be a Burgundy, the grape’s highest expression. (Ah, but which one?)

But I am not a millionaire. And each year, like all non-millionaire Pinot Noir lovers, I greet the rising price of Burgundy with sighs of despair. In my household Chambertin is a wine for birthdays and occasions, not for everyday drinking. On present trends it will soon be too costly even for that. Facing such a prospect the Merry Drinker struggles to remain merry.

The one consolation is that outside France good Pinot Noir is getting easier to find. Read the rest of this entry »