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I managed to stop by and pick up a few bottles of wine a few days ago. I had had such a busy week ( and still am in a way) I was unable to do much including stop and drink some wine. Generally speaking, I don’t avoid white wines but wine has always been red to me. The only white I picked up was Casal Garcia Vinho Verde. It was no cheaper than other whites around there and should have been less. A good and bad thing for wine drinkers is all food and beverages get priced for what the market can afford to pay. A bottle of wine which should sell for $1.99 or $2.99 and would make money also will be marketed for a whole lot more simply because the market can afford it. Anyone who remembers business courses or economic courses the supply and demand chart meet somewhere and that is where we get screwed. If the price goes above that too few people can afford it and if price goes below it too many will afford it. This crosspoint is where most money is made with least number of inventory and expenses. That is another story but the point made here is Vinho Verde is a great wine to drink when you just drink and not trying to pretend. American culture is new to wine drinking amongst many social classes. The richer and more sophisticated whom have been drinking wine are not exactly part of the new wine drinking culture. Their choices are within the same ranges as before because of their ability to pay and knowledge available to them. The rest of the society have been drinking one for food value or as a resource that provides alcohol into the veins. The latter is what American wines have been most suitable for over the years. The minority of wines which have been genuine wines were too few in numbers until recent years and recognition (and greed) moved their numbers higher and higher. The American wines of today are suitable for many purposes but may not be suitable for others. Personally, I really like the idea of wine as a beverage that comes out of a bottle or other container and does not pretend to be great or awesome or whatever. The absence of a need to compare the simple, everyday wine to any wine of quality is the most important criteria for me. American wine and other wines should be available for everyday drinking at prices that DO NOT EXIST! A bottle of wine priced at $1.99 is same as zero dollars. A bottle of wine priced at $2.99 is same as zero dollars. Food items have to be priced this way to be food items. Bread cannot cost $15 a roll and be bread. The cost is too high and cannot be consumed as bread. It is something else. Wine has same problem. Bottle of wine that is $15 is not meant for dinner table or a couple of glasses regardless of what the culture and the industry will TELL or ADVERTISE into the public. That bottle should have no price so it is food. Vinho Verde is a great wine for such a category and so is Muscadet (the hell with the Sur Lie but only 25% of production is not Sur Lie) and many other wines. They are just food. The bottle is opened and one drinks them. They should be priced at zero dollars. That means a bottle is $1.99 or $2.99. They should also be of acceptable quality. What is acceptable quality? They should be well-made. They should be true to their type and genre. They should NOT pretend to be something else. They should lack the necessity to compare to some expensive wine. Maybe, they should be systematically labeled somehow so all these possibilities and many others are eliminated. What is left is a container with contents that qualify as simple every day wine. AND they may not have alcohol. Too many wines from the Old World are very inexpensive, good in quality and also lack alcohol. A low number of alcohol percentage is a must for such wines so one can drink them and not drink them. The biggest problem with the local industry is the climate is generally too warm where American vines are planted and grapes are ripened too much and and and. They consequence is wine that is too much to be everyday drink. It is great as a source of alcohol for some and will sell that way. Or, it has to PRETEND to be something great or like great to be marketable at higher prices and also not judged so much for flaws and weaknesses. I personally think there is tremendous demand in the American market for such wines. If Americans are to be wine drinkers, they ought to drink wine and not the stuff manufactured by the industry and sold to them as THE American wine. That stuff can and will stay around and have their own place but what is missing is the everyday, simple drinking, aperitif or food wine that costs ZERO DOLLARS and is available for benefit of our health and not to celebrate an occasion or pretend we are hip and in. What percentage of the American wine drinkers are connoisseur to really appreciate the good American wine? The industry needs to regulate itself so categories of products can be created based on principles that match the needs and the benefits of most purchasers. The American wine industry can turn itself from a sh+t industry to a GOOD industry providing millions and millions of Americans with GOOD everyday wine without ripping them off or pretending. That is wine culture is where wine is drank as food. This Vinho Verde was very good. It went in the fridge where all white wines belong if one is drinking in California and was too cold to drink needless to say. That did not bother me. It had the bubbles, the acid, the light to medium body and who knows some hint of fruits to justify drinking. I really enjoyed the wine but not the price. I don’t even know the vintage and does it matter that much? It is recent. I strongly encourage the industry to work on creating a category of wines that will fit the above mentioned. I may have to kick everybody’s a++ if proper action is not taken. Yes sir I will.

This post belongs to this week’s edition of My Week In Wine and may appear in Reviews by Cush.

I had almost forgotten I opened this bottle and needed to write something about. Last two weeks have been hectic and when my schedule is mixed up everything goes haywire. I hardly drank any wine the last two weeks because I hardly slept nor did much of anything. Today is slightly peaceful and I had a chance. I did try to read up on Tempranillo and Aaragon wines but my attention was short and jump back here to writing. Spain is not a new region to quality wines any more and the public are getting exposed to more and more wines from less popularly known regions. I admit I no longer can excuse myself for knowledge in one area because of my interest in other regions. Spain is one region that has risen to prominence. I am beginning to think it is time for a complete updating of my wine knowledge considering how much has changed over the past few years. I have to see if I can get permission! I seem to have somebody in any area of interest I have who is most qualified and basically let me know what is within my area of work and what is a waste of my time. I think I need to update my knowledge of many changes. I have been told as of recent past, I only need to taste more wine and write about and “shut up.” That is how much I am supposed to know about Spanish wine.

This was a cheap bottle and I liked it because the bottle is small!!! Many wines have a tendency to falsely portray value by labeling and shape of the bottle. Molino de Viento has no claims of such and the bottle looked small everytime I looked at it. The capsule is a cheap way of packaging and plastic cork is more professional in my view. I still have half of the bottle. It is my habit to drink the stuff slowly to see what becomes of the wine. It is amazing how much wine can change over a few hours or days within reasonable expectations. I have to try more of this wine yet. It smelled okay last night and I was drinking coffee. Wine is very young. The color, fruits, and nose were all of very young wine. 2009 is not that young but the wine was. It was not that tight to need opening up but swirling in burgundy glass was definitely an advantage. I cannot say the wine was one-dimensional nor that it was typical new world wine because it was not. It is old world wine but somehow reminded me of let’s-pretend new world wines! I have nothing bad to say about the wine. It was in great shape and drinks well. Tempranillo is not my top choice for red and need to drink some quality Tempranillo to have some benchmark for judging quality but for an everyday wine is not bad. I recommend it. The bottle is very small!

*This post belongs to this week’s edition of My Week In Wine and may appear in Reviews by Cush.

I found this bottle of Chardonnay by Domaine Jean Bousquet in the shop by accident. I had good memories of the last white Spanish wine I bought here and was open to testing. Chardonnay was the first thing I noticed and the varietal meant I would drink the bottle to the end. Argentina was not very clear and could mean experimental to very good quality. The seal on the capsule suggesting the wine by some publication named Wine Advocate did affect my decision slightly. I am very open to suggestions in some categories by Wine Advocate because I remember their philosophy of pushing significant accomplishments into the limelight regardless of all other details of the wine. Something in this wine qualified it for attention and I would buy it regardless, in other words. I have mixed thoughts about drinking the wine. My first action was to shove it in the fridge which proved a bad idea. The wine was too cold to drink (normal to locals however) and I found it very easy to drink compared to California Chardonnay but not much to point out. It was not a fruit bomb and oak was not standing out either. I left the second half of the bottle for the next day outside of the fridge in a cabinet which is spacious and has its own mesoclimate. If the door is not opened the temperature inside can be a good 8 to 10 degrees below the room temperature and that is stable to chill wine outside of the fridge. The second half went down very easily also but was a different experience. The wine tasted chalky to me and I was not sure if it was so had to read up on the soil in the area and supposed to be alluvial. I guess it is alluvial soil. The fruits do not stand out as the winemaker trade sheet points out and I found it a wine with good body (medium to full) that is a lot alike Chablis with much more body and nothing like California wine. The temperature does not show in the wine but the soil mixture does and that is not my strongest area to split hairs. The wine is very good and will definitely be an excellent drink as value wine or above. It won’t impress if sold by glass since lacks California Chardonnay trademark signs. It is excellent for dinner parties and ease of drink-ability means more bottles than expected will be sold. I recommend it.

*This post belongs to this week’s edition of My Week In Wine and may appear in Reviews by Cush.

Well, I had some time and why not experiment with some chicken breast. I am getting closer to the way I would like it the most. This one tastes really good. Added honey per recipe though missing soy sauce. Can taste so many flavors. From bitter and acid of limes to honey flavor, the spices, and even spaghetti sauce that keeps going in the pot. I cannot figure any difference with the tomato paste though am sure there is. Next should be trying dried Middle Eastern limes which are even stronger in flavor. I dumped a third of bottle of red wine in also and definitely can taste.

I found these in Walgreens at end of a row. The Riesling bottles are huge for supermarket sale or are they? The bottles on shelf above are 750 ml Champagne bottles. Notice the size difference! I absolutely have no interest in tasting what is inside the bottle!!! I thought the size was a great gimmick to sell yuuuuuuk.

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