Found this at Club Liquor in Menasha, in the basement (Mark B style), and while Doris’ stock has been mostly picked over by eager Chicagoans on their way up to their cabins in Wisconsin, there’s an occasional decent find. Among them is cheap Bordeaux with age on it. Paid $14 for this wine, I think, and my employee who accompanied me bought a bottle, and another 2000 Bordeaux for $9, I believe. While not a great wine, it is perfectly ‘good’, like a nicely aged house claret for a European who fancies wine. I can’t think of a single American wine - as much as I love American wine - that could compare, and I reflect on the countless Spanish and Italian wines, as well as French, that just deliver a great QPR. I guess it just comes down to the price of land, or the distribution channels and their margins, or the cost of the employees…no clue…but even if you CAN find an American wine for $10-15 that delivers well, and can age, you certainly can’t find hundreds, or thousands of them like you can from the Old World. A bit frustrating, really, but at least we can enjoy both, I guess.
Europe doesn’t have as many interwebs millionaires who are buying up 10 acre’s as a lark, and deciding they need to make a $100 btl with their name on it. It’s still an agricultural business, prone to the whims of weather, and drinking fashion, without much of a glorious business moat around it, esp for the smaller estates which aren’t luxury brand labels.
Stop it! What’s the matter with you? Go buy that California stuff. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Nicely done, Todder!
With a screw cap, Eric? 