The current economy, radically different from the pre-October 2009 version, has had some dramatic effects on wine sales and wine in general out in the so-called real world and much of what you might well have intuited out there is likely to be true. Let’s explore.

According to an October positing on Decanter Online, “Napa Suffers at High End,” ultra premium wines, especially those higher end babies from Napa Valley, are taking a real hit out there. Continue reading »

Well, it depends on what airline you are flying. And, of course, where you are sitting.

Wine has always been a tricky issue in the friendly skies. On one hand, they want to give you something reasonable but on the other hand they want to pay as little for it as is humanly possible and will put the wine selection out to offer (tender it) to varying companies to see what they can get. Historically most airlines, domestically speaking, have had a poor track record so they have enlisted wine experts to help them out and give them a way of ‘promoting’ their wine program while making the ‘pain of paying’ slightly less as you are getting better quality more often than not. My friends Doug Frost (United) and Andrea Robinson (Delta) have helped bring the wine programs of the economy classes of those respective carriers way up. Ditto for ‘classless’ airlines like Jet Blue who has enlisted Josh Wesson (he of Best Cellars fame) to assist in the wine selection process driven by the value proposition. Continue reading »

Cows in Berkeley? Wine in Slovenia? Well… Alas, there are no real grazing cows in the People’s Republic of Berkeley (California), but in Slovenia there is wine, and it has a long and heralded history in this new country. Post a thorough tasting and discussion with Emil Gaspari, the walking sandwich board for Slovenian wines, I think that you can add another new and worthwhile wine number to your proverbial dance card.

Over an email exchange a few months back, Jancis Robinson MW queried me about Slovenian distribution in the USA, so charmed was she having recently come back from tasting in this newly sovereign nation (having achieved such independence in June of 1991). While I have had some experience with wines from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and indeed Moldova and Croatia, Slovenia had not yet crossed my radar screen. Since that cyber dialogue with Jancis, my antennae have been tuned for Ljubljana Free Radio, or more seriously, any tasting opportunities for Slovenian wines that would present themselves. As luck would have it, I was contacted via Emil’s West Coast distributor, Blue Danube Wine Company, and I jumped at the opportunity to taste and learn. Continue reading »