There are signs everywhere pointing to the fact that you can still drink decent wine and not have to lose your shirt financially. Here’s a round-up of bits ‘n’ pieces:
The wine nobody talks about
I’ll bet you won’t know the answer to this question:
Who just sold his 400 millionth bottle of a certain kind of wine, owns 40,000 acres of vineyards, has an annual wine sales revenue of more than $500 million a year and crushes 350,000 tons of grapes a year?
And yet you won’t find his wines on the same table with escargot forks.
It’s Fred Franzia, best known for his Charles Shaw, or “Two Buck Chuck” wine that sells for $1.99 a bottle.
The wine also known as Two Buck Chuck.
Read Dana Goodyear’s well-done story about this wine player in the May 18 issue of The New Yorker. (Click here to read the first part of the story.)
Goodyear reports Franzia believes no wine should cost more than $10 a bottle. I like that thinking.
I have had Two Buck Chuck and it’s not swill. It’s in keeping with what’s apparently Franzia’s dream – to produce inexpensive wine that yuppies will drink. Looks as if his sales figures say his idea is a good one.
In 2007, this wine took top prize as best chardonnay at a California state fair commercial wine competition. Wine snobs were agog.
Restaurant BYOB nights making a comeback
Some local restaurants have either added a corkage fee where there wasn’t one, or lowered the fee in an effort to attract diners who like to bring their own vintage to the table.
For those unfamiliar with corkage fees, it means you take your own bottle to the restaurant and you’re charged a flat fee for having your server open and pour your bottle. Corkage fees seem to be hanging around $15.
I like the fact that this option is growing, although I also like to try new things I haven’t had a hand in buying. That means in restaurants with a good, affordable wine menu I’ll ask for a suggestion in the hope I find a new favorite.
A while ago, that happened at West Palm Beach’s Rhythm Cafe, one of my fave places to dine. The food is always terrific and the wine list is, too. I like trying new food and wine tastes there – my current glass is Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.
This is a big red wine a lot of reviews call “food friendly” and I concur.
I’ve had it with pasta, seafood and meat; it’s a versatile wine. It’s a bit bolder (of course), but not too bold or dense and those who like lighter reds would probably find this one tasty, too. Tastes of berries and is a nice, bright red.
