the price of wine

What is it that attracts people to wine?

For me it was simple, wine always changes, each bottle is an enigma. Will it be good? Will it be as good as everyone says it is? Is it corked? Will it go with my Sushi take-away? Will my friends enjoy it? Or will it be plonk I buy for the occasional Spaghetti sauce?

The endless combinations. Grape, Soil, Climate, Treatment, Winemaker, Barrel, Closure. All of the factors that make up a bottle of wine remind me of the constant growth of wine. Even if you read everything printed on wine you would never know it all. Even if you tasted every wine you would never know it all, as each bottle, each wine changes with every moment in time. There is that constant knowledge that no matter how much you think you know you will never know it all, wine is humbling.

Wine enchants, not just people but food. Magical combinations abound and secrets pour out. Whether it is Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese or Merlot and gossip something happens. With all these possibilities why is generality winning the popularity race? With all that there is to learn, from the wine, the people and the food we seem to be directed to the price tag & package.

Can we afford to buy a wine where the marketing campaign costs as much as the juice?

Yes. Remember the first wine you bought and why you bought it, the label probably played a factor but you kept buying more and eventually you were hooked. So the package led to the purchase, the purchase led to the experience and the experience led to the thirst for knowledge and those magical combinations but eventually we go back. This step back can lead down a new path and new discoveries of grape or region. And sometimes they don't.

And No. Wine is the one area where we can afford to 'play the field', the only thing you might catch is a bad hang-over. Diversity of region and grape keeps innovation happening. It also keeps the market competitive and growing. By overly supporting and promoting formulated, packaged wines do we contribute to the demise of vino diversity? Personally I do not want to drink what the critics and marketers made for me, the consumer. I think I can use my limited wine budget to explore new regions, to go where no wine dictator has gone before, to not buy a wine made for the masses. I've never been a sheep, or a penguin for that matter.

Many of the local wine writers have an enthusiasm for inexpensive wines, inexpensive wines with animals on the label, inexpensive wines plugged over and over and over again. One even suggests you can make Piesporter by mixing (cheap) apple juice and a shot of Vodka. This one has never experienced the magic of a Piesporter Goldtropfchen Spatlese. Wine is not juice and alcohol, wine is alchemy.

Wine review...I decided to try a new wine with EcoCert on the label, I have seen a lot of these lately. No fancy label, a tree and a sun. What an enjoyable little wine, bright nectarine and lime flavours balanced by a honied texture and a splash of acidity.
So to sum it up...
Domaine de L'Olivette Blanc
Grape(s): listed as Grenache & Marsanne. I think the Grenache is Grenache Rose or Grenache Gris.
Vintage: 2003
Appellation: Vin de Pays des Coteaux de Cabrerisse , (Southern) France
Closure: Trad. Cork
Price: Under $15 but more than $12; I misplaced the receipt.
Had With: light meal - mushroom & spinach frittata; we had this and it worked well but the wine also made me think of cold roasted chicken salad.
Recommend: Buy & try.