More Wine Please.

Wine is needlessly complicated. Serious connoisseurs are a little OCD about their habit/hobby. Collecting/hoarding bottles they won't ever open and are unable to hold a conversation with civilians about why wine is good and worth the expense. The industry as a whole is subject to whims of a few trendsetters in a way that makes fashion seem logical, predictable and rational. Most of us don’t know what is good or bad in a bottle – According to research published by Professor Larry Lockshin, the average wine buyer spends 38 seconds making their selection and the purchase decision is mostly influenced by the label. This makes me a below average wine buyer because it takes me 10 minutes to make a selection, spending more money than I intended to and completely unsure if someone who loves wine will enjoy my selection.

Saucyman has recruited a lover of wine to help bridge the knowledge gap – Our wine specialist will be posting here periodically on the condition they can do so anonymously: I’m not sure it is cool to do that on the internet, but we have already agreed to the terms. The only problem is we need a good nom de plume for our contributor:

Anonymous Bosch, Pinot Envy, Ensign Wesley Crush, In Vino, My Cousin Vino, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vino, The Sommelivelier, Oeno Wilson, Fermentism– Votes and suggestions are most welcome, but for today’s introductory post we will leave the name blank.


The average American drinks 28 gallons of beer a year but only 2.7 gallons of wine. Some feel this equation needs to be balanced by some combination of more wine and less beer, but I feel people can even the score by drinking more wine. Here is the thing, 20 years ago coffee came from a can - Juan Valdez was a symbol of purity rather than exploitation and no one with any degree of sensibility would drink an espresso, an au lait, a latte even if they could find one to order. But slowly coffee drinkers learned the difference between Sumatra and Brazil, plantation grown versus shade grown and the difference in quality between robusta and arabica beans. As people learned more about different coffee drinks, they didn't stop drinking regular coffee; they gravitated towards more, better coffee. Wine needs to undergo the same transformation - with knowledge and appreciation wine can be an enjoyable part of your meal, an essential part of your day or something to kick back with and it can do so without replacing beer.

One of the problems wine faces is an intimidation factor; Is it Syrah or Shiraz? It is both. Too many names… regions, producers, varietals, and blends. Wine labels may only list the region and expect you to know what grape or grapes are contained inside. Other wine labels may offer no clues whatsoever to its contents. So how do you get past these and other barriers to start enjoying more vino? Well, through periodic posts, I hope to make selecting wine as confident of a transaction as buying beer – and enable you to remember your first notable wine the way you remember your first Guinness – a combination of love and knowledge that everything up to that point could have been so much better.

My experience is that an open mind and an open bottle make friends, but let's start with a glass and a casual acquaintance. Here are a few tips on tasting a good wine the next time you venture out. Pick a bar or restaurant that seems to move a lot of wine - A Zagat rated location (usually indicated by a sticker on the door) is a good start. These establishments focus on wine, but in any eatery it is easy to discern from the drink list, the tables surrounding you, or the numerous bottles on the display if you are in a wine friendly place.

Beer can be monogamous, people settling in with their favorite kind brand never straying, except that one time on a business trip, far from home and alone, when you had something else. With wine you play the field - many wine bars and a few restaurants offering wine “flights”. It is like speed dating, but for wine – instead of one large glass, you will meet 3 smaller pours of wine in rapid succession. If you like one you can share a meal with it. If the restaurant doesn’t offer any tasting flights, they will normally pour taste of the wine that you are considering if it is offered by the glass. Ask servers to hook you up with something they approve of. Most of all, don't be shy and don't be afraid of running into a glass of wine you don't hit it off with, it's okay, there are others you will connect with.

Not ready to ask questions about wine while on a big date, in front of your boss or an important client, then I’ll answer your questions here. Next up: How young is too young? Pinot futures in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.