Whine of the Month : January 2010

How is it possible that my job is getting harder when there are more and more inexpensive wines showing up on store shelves every day?

I’ll tell you how, because most of the stuff is perfectly drinkable, and yet totally boring and generic. This is because the winemaker’s “art” while certainly advancing, allows oceans of merely acceptable wines to be produced nearly everywhere. You’d think that was a good thing, but that’s exactly the problem…

This website was built on my commitment to search for interesting, quality wines that delivered incredible value for the money. This meant crawling around the bottom shelves of dusty wine shops and scrutinizing labels for obscure indications of what might be in the bottle. This was done by knowing what to look for in terms of where and how the wine was made. Knowledge gleaned from many years of studying, reading, talking to others more experienced than myself and of course, pulling corks. Lots of corks.

At the last couple of Cheap Wine Club tastings however, I found myself somewhat disappointed in many of the wines. Seems like I used to hit a bunch of home runs every month, with at least half of the bottles really knocking our socks off. Lately, not so much. I blame-a myself.

I realize that as the preponderance of low-priced wines increase, I’ve gotten a bit lazy in my selection process. It pretty darned easy to grab anything under $10 and say “Let’s try this.” Sadly most of this stuff lacks anything resembling the special qualities we crave.

I don’t know, some would say this IS a good thing after all. I’ve always ranted about de-snobifying wines and there certainly exists a philosophy that wine should be a beverage like any other. However, when compared to the transcendant experience of drinking something truly wonderful, this stuff just seems like a waste of time.

The upshot is, I promise to do better in the New Year. I’ll return to my sleuthing ways and find the good stuff.

It could also be that inflation has finally caught up with our precious $10 limit. It’s possible that the great bottles we paid $5 or $6 for, have increased in price. I don’t believe it, though. Many of our favorite wines from yesteryear are still available and still the great bargains they’ve always been. It’s why I encourage new members of this site to explore the archives. Many of the bottles from the first few years remain on the shelves. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell ya what, over the coming months I think we’ll re-taste a few of them and make sure that they’re still delivering the kind of value that captured our hearts and palates when we first discovered them.

As far as the selection process goes, check the 2003 archives for short, informative articles concerning what to look for when selecting something to drink.

Harry “Your Low Rent Dionysus” Orlove