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 »