"Fun For Me. . . This past June we returned again to VinExpo - undoubtably the world's biggest wine trade show - held every second year at a vast exhibition center, built especially to house it, alongside a lake just north of Bordeaux.
To give you an idea of the size and scope, the main building is 1 kilometer long - it takes almost 15 minutes to walk from end to end - and there is a second building about half the size as well as many small temporary structures.
This year there were some 2500 exhibitors, representing wine and spirit producers world-wide. In 4 days, working about 8 hours a day, I doubt that we tasted even 5 percent of the products displayed.
It
is mind- and
palate-boggling.
There is an incredible amount of good wine available from all over the world, but what stood out were the wines from southern France - my "Wine Eden" - all of France south of an west-east line drawn from Bordeaux to the Italian border. I could live forever with wines only from here.
We found more affordable, exciting wines than we could ever stock and the
hardest part of the whole endeavor was making our final selection. It includes some stunning white and red Bordeaux,
a line of great, affordable white Bugundy, and some 25 reds and whites from my "Wine Eden". They will
be in the store by the holidays. Look for them in this newsletter - they are flagged with a ""
I hear mutterings from Michael, "Keeper of our Cellar in the Sky", and from Jennifer, "Doyen of Displays". They sound like "Where in the heck does he expect us to put all the stuff?"
Our June trip included a pilgrimage through northern Spain from Barcelona to San Sebastian. Wonderful food - we'll share our experiences - just ask. And the wines? The best for the money anywhere at every price level - and remember you cannot pay $20 a bottle for more than a hand-full and those are world-class. The whole culture is different - many of the wineries are family-owned and they boast that they owe no money and are beholden to no one but the consumer - they are driven by quality and value, not the bottom line.
Closer to home and closer to the present, as I write, it is the time of tastings held by distributors to promote their product for the coming holiday season. Some of these tastings are a challenge - how do you evaluate 250 or so wines in three hours? With much diligence!
I hate to pass up an opportunity to sample wines even if I have not liked them in the past. Anyway, I simply go down the line, first white and then red. I can tell in a couple of seconds if I have any interest and give it a temporary rating of 0 to 4 "stars" - (5 is my top rating but I've awarded it only once). When I'm done I go back and re-evaluate the wines I rated 2 and up. Typically, from a 250-wine tasting I will buy less than 10 wines, sometimes none. Over the years I have derived some satisfaction from finding wines whose price and quality my competition have overlooked. That's fun for me!
Fun For You . . . in wine, happily there is no such thing as "one size fits all". Individual tastes vary and the spectrum of wine is almost endless, so there is no guarantee that you will like a wine that I or anyone else recommends - highly or otherwise.Though they may be subjective, there are broadly accepted standards that wine can be judged by. Most people will agree on truly bad wine and it is hard to imagine that most people would not enjoy a mature bottle of first growth Bordeaux. In between lies a mine-field.
At the Madison Wine Shop, you may be overwhelmed by the large, and frequently esoteric selection, but because we have tasted and selected virtually every wine on our shelves, you need never fear buying inferior wine. There are many wines, some quite popular, that, in our judgement are poor value, and because of limited space we do not carry them in inventory - but we will gladly special-order them for you, and that usually takes only a day or two.
Also at the Madison Wine Shop, you will never be pressured into spending more than you intended, in fact, we prefer to sell you wine for less than you expected to pay. We want you to come back - and you do.
Wise-up on Wine, our expanded wine tasting experience happens not only on Saturday, but most other days as well - we want you to share our experience - you will taste Rick's Picks - those we bought - and also some Rick's Nix - those we did not buy.