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In this week's Premium Edition: My detailed report on an extensive "vertical" tasting of Pinot Noirs from one of Oregon's most respected producers will be available exclusively to Wine Advisor Premium Edition subscribers in tomorrow's biweekly report. The Premium Edition, our subscription-only E-letter, makes it easy to shop with confidence when you're considering a more pricey bottle for a special occasion. Your $24 annual subscription delivers 26 biweekly E-mail editions and helps support WineLoversPage.com.
Read a sample copy here: Reorganizing the wine shop
Perhaps the majority of wine shops simply sort their wines on shelves identified by the country or region of origin (or in the case of the sleek, well-stocked Lavinia in Paris, rooms divided among countries and regions). But it's not uncommon to find shops organized by grape variety, for instance; and that's not all. Sweden's Systembolaget government stores, I'm told, set up the shelves in order of price. And a few innovative retailers - including the New York-based Best Cellars stores and some British shops - organize their wares by flavor, sorting sweet, soft, fruity and dry wines into separate sections to point consumers toward styles of wine they'll be likely to prefer. Has the traditional country-and-region organization become dominant because it's objectively best? Or might one of the alternatives serve wine lovers better? In this week's Wine Lovers' Voting Booth, we offer you the opportunity to tell the wine merchants of the world just how you would like to see them organize the wine shop. For purposes of the survey, the list of choices asks you to focus on the primary organization: In other words, a vote for "country or region" doesn't preclude the merchant organizing wines by color and alphabetically within each country or regional section. Thanks to Peter May, the genial host of www.Pinotage.org and the delightful www.winelabels.org Website, for suggesting this idea and providing information about British stores that organize wines by flavor profile. Thanks also go to the usual crowd of volunteer advisors for helping to refine it. As always, this is a lighthearted poll without any scientific value, presented simply to inspire discussion and for the fun of seeing how your answers compare with those of other wine lovers around the world. Once you have cast your ballot, the software will immediately add your entry to the list so you can compare your response to those from other wine lovers around the world.
VOTING BOOTH LINKS
To see how others have voted, go to:
TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. In recent weeks, we've featured a couple of Spanish Garnachas (Grenache) in the single-digit price range, noteworthy for their bright, fruit-forward flavors and affordable price tag. Today let's see what we get for a few extra dollars, moving into the middle teens for a more upscale bottling from Borsao, maker of the raspberry Kool-Aid-like "fruit bomb" that we tasted on Aug. 11, 2004. Made from low-yield, old-vines Garnacha, it's a more complex and powerful wine with structure and balance lacking in the low-price brand. 
Borsao 2002 "Tres Picos" Campo de Borja Garnacha ($14.99)
This dark-garnet wine shows the signature raspberry character of Garnacha/Grenache on the nose and palate, but it's relatively restrained, and gains interest from grace notes of cloves and cinnamon. Juicy raspberry fruit and spice are nicely balanced by firm structural acidity on the palate, with high (14.5%) alcohol building a full body and a sense of heat in the finish. Not as much of a "fruit bomb" as its less pricey Borsao sibling, but it's still a very-berry, fruit-forward wine. U.S. importer: Cutting Edge Selections, Fairfax, Ohio, and other regional importers; from Jorge Ordoñez. (Sept. 4, 2004) FOOD MATCH: An excellent match with a char-grilled free-range chicken with fresh herbs tucked under the breast skin; plenty of body and structure to hold up well to rare red meat, too. VALUE: It's frankly not a great buy at the $15 price point, although its balance, structure and reasonable complexity may justify the cost if you like a fruit-forward, powerful red. Shop around, though, as my local retail price was on the high side; this wine is widely available from Internet vendors in the $10 to $12 range. WHEN TO DRINK: Should hold up and perhaps evolve in the cellar for a few years, but I don't see it as a long-time keeper.
PRONUNCIATION:
WEB LINK: You'll find Bodegas Borsao's English-language fact sheet on Tres Picos here:
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: Check out prices and vendors for Borsao Tres Picos at Wine-Searcher.com, 
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For a fun and unique gift, or to experience a monthly wine adventure for yourself visit This week on WineLoversPage.com Here are links to some of our recently published articles that I think you'll enjoy:
• Bucko's Wine Reports: New Wines for Summer
• Nat Decants: Fall Ambrosia
• Wine Lovers' Discussion Group: 1979 Anything? Suggestions please! Last Week's Wine Advisor Index The Wine Advisor's daily edition is usually distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (and, for those who subscribe, the FoodLetter on Thursdays). Here's the index to last week's columns:
• Gallo meets Da Vinci (Sept. 3, 2004)
• Another affordable Spanish Grenache (Sept. 1, 2004)
• Report from a wine festival (Aug. 30, 2004)
• Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive:
• Wine Advisor FoodLetter: Involtini di Melanzane (Sept. 2, 2004)
• Wine Advisor Foodletter archive:
SUBSCRIBE: Administrivia To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, or for any other administrative matters, please use the individualized hotlink found at the end of your E-mail edition. If this is not practical, contact me by E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com, including the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so I can find your record. We do not use our E-mail list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail address to anyone. I welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. To contact me, please send E-mail to wine@wineloverspage.com All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry.
Monday, Sept. 6, 2004 |
Finding your way around a large wine shop can be daunting, and not just to novices. Even the most seasoned wine expert may be stymied for a while upon entering a new shop and trying to locate the Austrian Grüner Veltliners or the Argentine Malbecs ... or just to track down a good ingredient and sipping companion for Saturday evening's coq au vin.
