Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Old World wines

Eric Asimov makes the point that when all is said and done the Old World simply has a head start on cultivating grapes and making wine. For all the great progress in California and other New World vineyards, France, Italy, Spain, Germany -- now that they've caught up with modern wine-making methods and labeling -- are by and large going to be better.

That's fine with me. It's not to say I won't happily buy and drink wines from California, Oregon, Washington, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but I will focus more on the Old World wines. So, for instance, we had a very simple white Bordeaux this past week, Chateau Suau. It was a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscatelle and had that crisp, dry mineral flavor of a good French white. Not a wine of character but still more interesting than your run-of-the-mill Sauvignon Blanc.

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