As distributors consolidate, rely on your wine shop for outstanding small-scale choices

A ugust usually is seen as a sleepy, languorous month. Europeans famously take off the entire month, shoehorning themselves onto overcrowded beaches or thronging mountain resorts. (This year they also seem to be splurging on trips to the United States, the better to buy everything in sight with their strong euro.)

Locally, though, August is anything but sleepy, at least in the world of what might be called Big Wine. The local wine distribution business has been consolidating at an almost frantic pace. In June, as previously reported, Oregon's largest beer and wine distributor, Young's Columbia Wine Co., acquired the second-largest distributor, Mt. Hood Beverage Co.

That move had the world's three biggest wine producers under the same roof: Constellation Brands Inc., Diageo and E.&J. Gallo Winery. Suffice it to say that they don't play well together in the same sandbox.