Wine’s golden age

Your guide to NH’s wine week

We’re way past France and Napa.

If you look at the labels in any wine store, you’ll see bottles from everywhere — familiar wine locales like Australia and Chile as well as unexpected places like Uruguay, Lebanon and maybe even New Mexico.

What’s good? What’s a deal?

What’s worth paying a little more for?

One way to find out is to check out a wine tasting. The granddaddy of all New Hampshire wine-tastings will be held Thursday, Jan. 28, at the Radisson in Manchester. It’s the Winter Wine Spectacular, an annual benefit for Easter Seals that has now become the cornerstone of an entire week (and more) of wine-tastings, dinners and workshops. Coming around the same time as the Boston Wine Expo, New Hampshire’s event attracts many of the same experts and wine-makers, with events for everyone from the casual taster to the connoisseur.

In addition to giving you the rundown on all these events, we’ve asked local people in the wine business to talk about the world of wine — from traditional wine countries California and France to the latest hot terroir like Argentina.

Get your glasses and your tasting journals ready — it’s wine season.

A week full of wine
NH uncorks another Wine Week and Winter Wine Spectacular
By Jeff Mucciarone

Filled with a variety of events, ranging from tastings and seminars to wine dinners and bottle-signings, 2010’s edition of Wine Week in New Hampshire has something for the wine novice and the wine expert and anyone in between.

“It’s an opportunity to get right in front of the person, taste wine with them, hear their stories, really get a feeling for what it’s like, how they’ve made their wine,” said Nicole Brassard of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission (www.nh.gov/liquor), which puts on the week-long series of events. “The wine is like their children. They’re very passionate about what they do. Anybody that would attend [any of the statewide tastings] would come away with some really neat information.”

The seventh annual Wine Week begins Friday, Jan. 22, and ends Sunday, Jan. 31. Wine Week is highlighted by the Winter Wine Spectacular, which takes place Thursday, Jan. 28, from 6 to 9 p.m., at the Radisson Hotel at 700 Elm St. in Manchester, and features more than 1,400 wines. The week’s worth of events offers people a chance to get out there, talk to wine experts in a relaxed setting and try out some new wines. Many restaurants host wine dinners with wine celebrities. State liquor stores host free wine-tastings and bottle-signings. More establishments are hosting wine bars with professional pouring.

“It’s just turned into a bigger and bigger event every year,” Brassard said, adding Wine Week events take place as far north as Jackson. “It just spans the state. It’s really neat to see it move north.”

The Commission is thrilled to have Jed Steele back, as well as Kevin Zraly, a premier wine educator. Richard Sanford, a “legendary” California winemaker, will be returning as well, along with Peter Merriam, a winemaker from Massachusetts, Brassard said.

 “There’s nothing like sitting there and having dinner and talking with a wine-maker,” Brassard said. “It’s really a neat experience. If people haven’t experienced that and they can make it work financially, it’s worth doing.”

Wine Week is also a big week for wine retailers and restaurants, who notice that patrons do tend to try new flavors during Wine Week’s time frame. For stores that host their own tastings and wine celebrity appearances, owners see an uptick in sales as well. Officials have noticed more and more people implement Wine Week into their travel plans, perhaps taking a day or two out of their ski trip to attend a wine tasting or a wine dinner, or simply planning that ski trip for Wine Week. Also, the state gets to show off its own wine selection. Stores cycle through 6,500 wines in a year, Brassard said last year.

The time of year has been key as well, since people are often looking for something to do during the winter. And with the economy, people are looking for economical options — cue any of Wine Week’s free events. (The Winter Wine Spectacular isn’t free but 100 percent of proceeds go to Easter Seals New Hampshire. Visit www.nh.gov/liquor for a complete list of Wine Week events.)

“It’s really a good time of year to try to get people out and about,” Brassard said.

In the midst of Wine Week falls the Winter Wine Spectacular, which is the “Super Bowl of wine-tastings,” said Christine Hardy of Easter Seals (nh.easterseals.com). She coordinates the event. The money raised will go to support children and youth services. Usually the money goes to Easter Seals in general, but this year the organization decided to raise funds for the program area in greatest need of help, Hardy said. Two years ago, the event raised more than $120,000 for Easter Seals.

Hardy said even for people who aren’t big on wine, the event features food from the area’s best restaurants — not to mention a silent auction with more than 100 prizes. For the first time this year, the tasting will feature artwork by students from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. The pieces are all devoted to food and wine.

“It’s a great event for anybody, especially in this economy,” Hardy said. “You’re not going to spend money on a bottle of wine and run the risk of not liking it. You can go in and explore the wines.”

At tastings, taking notes is key. And it doesn’t have to be all sophisticated note-taking about the subtle tones and richness of flavor — marking a particular wine an A or a B- will do just fine when walking the aisles of a liquor store in search of your favorite wine from the tasting, Hardy said.

“You can make an educated purchase because your notes said you loved it,” Hardy said.

Hardy said the Winter Wine Spectacular provides an opportunity to try out less common varieties of wine as well. Most people have at least heard of a cabernet or a merlot, but many of the tastings, and particularly the Winter Wine Spectacular, offer some less traditional names — many of which people can get at a better price since they are less popular.

Wine Week has plenty of appeal for wine-lovers living beyond the New Hampshire state line, particularly for those in Massachusetts. Brassard said she’s heard from folks that people are more and more opting for the Winter Wine Spectacular rather than the Boston Wine Expo, which also takes place this month.

“This is the place to go,” Brassard said.

“It’s taken on a world of its own,” Brassard said. People put together wine dinners at their own homes. People head out to enjoy wine dinners at local restaurants hosted by wine experts and celebrities. “The great thing is that it’s expanded to people just thinking about wine. They’re getting creative about how they experience wine themselves.”

Kevin Zraly’s “Wine 101”
Top wine instructor and author to visit New Hampshire

Kevin Zraly founded Windows on the World Wine School more than 30 years ago, and since then thousands of students have completed the course. And more than 3 million copies of his book, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, have been sold. Zraly gives a New Hampshire Wine Week wine and food pairing seminar Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m., at CR Sparks, 18 Kilton Road in Bedford. (Tickets cost $40, and some proceeds benefit Easter Seals of NH. Call 621-3429.) 

He talked to the Hippo about the state of wine now and how to approach a wine-tasting event.

Are there any regions or continents that people should look to as the next place to find good-value wines?
Yes. The answer is South America.

Has that been the go-to place for a while?
No. Yes, and no.

Twelve years ago I was in Chile and Argentina, and then a year ago — I don’t know how much research you were able to get on me … I’m on my fifth book right now. The first book was called, still called, The Windows on the World Complete Wine Course.

And that was based on the restaurant [Windows on the World, which was at the top floors of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City]?
Well, I worked at the restaurant … from the day it opened and was still with them the day it closed on Sept. 11. Obviously, I was not there that day. That was 25 years of my life associated with that restaurant.

Anyway, I have a book which is called The Windows on the World Complete Wine Course. And the 25th-anniversary edition just came out in October — and I’m not trying to promote it. Fortunately, I’m happy to say, it’s the number-one-selling wine book in the world for exactly the question you just asked me. ... over the last two years I went around the world to go visit every major wine region on Earth for the writing of the 25th-anniversary edition. So I’m the best I’ll ever be right now. You know, with the knowledge of wine, ’cause I’ve just been all these places. So that brings me back to why I was in Chile and Argentina. Twelve years ago, they were making OK wine, nothing spectacular. Today, it’s spectacular wines at great prices.

Would you say that’s any country in South America?
No, Chile and Argentina.

Now my job in life, as I look at it anyway, is to find the $10 bottle of wine that tastes like a $20 bottle of wine.

That’s a great job. I think a lot of people would appreciate that.
Well, in the back of the book — I mean I’ve been very fortunate to taste wines that are over 100 years old. Many times. But that is not really what the wine market is all about. The wine market is, you know, people getting a bottle of wine and having it for dinner around the house. And they’re not going to spend a lot of money and they don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a good bottle of wine.

So in the back of my book, I actually list the best wines under $10 in the world. I list the best wines between $10 and $20. And then I say if you want to spend more than that, here’s some more to look at but nothing over $50. Retail is what I’m talking about. Retail pricing.

So, I could say Chile and Argentina. Chile, I would say their Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet, it’s the name of a grape. And then in Argentina the grape is Malbec.

I feel like I’ve been seeing more of those — Malbecs.
Well, again Argentina is nowhere even near their full capacity of what they’re going to do over the next 20 years. Chile’s always been ahead of the curve, here. But Chile, as you know from looking at a map, is long and narrow. You can’t do it in the north, you can’t do it in the south. It’s sort of like, right down in the middle of Chile is where you’re going to find everything happening, near Santiago, actually. Right around Santiago, north, south, 60 miles either way. It’s a small area.

Argentina has got so much land. And they haven’t even touched...they’re just beginning. And they’re beginning on a high note.

But I don’t want to just stay in Chile and Argentina. Let’s move around to different countries.

Americans drink American wines. That is a fact.

Seventy-five percent of what we consume in the United States is made in the United States. And it’s been that way for a long time. Actually, that means there’s a 25-percent import market.

The other thing I would say is that every state in the United States of America has at least one winery. Actually at least two wineries.

California represents 90 percent of all wines that people are going to drink. Then the next state is Washington state. Then it’s going to be New York State. Then it is Oregon.

In New Hampshire alone there are nine wineries.

I’m impressed you knew that [the number of wineries in New Hampshire].
That’s my job.

So what you have now is a wine culture that’s built into the United States. People are going to wineries. They can travel up to Maine, where there’s another nine wineries. They can go to Vermont, where there’s 11 wineries. And if they really want to go further, they can go to New York State — that’s got over 200 wineries.

My whole point to this is there’s a culture that did not exist 25 years ago when I first wrote my book.

[Going back to the value question.]

I don’t want to just say that Chile and Argentina is the only game in town. Obviously, there’s some great wines coming out of California. That’s why I brought that whole thing up about the United States.

And one of the great wines of Italy is still one of great wines of Italy. And it’s called Chianti Classico Riserva. And that’s still under $20 a bottle, a great, great, great wine.

In Spain, you have a region called Rioja. Rioja Crianza, which is a level of wine.

In France, you have a region called the Côtes du Rhône. The Côtes du Rhône wines, unbelievable values.

Obviously, ...Australia...I mean, what I’m saying here right now, this is the most important thing I can tell you … I traveled around the world. I went to 15 countries. I went to over 100 wine regions. Within those wine regions, I went to over 400 different appellations, meaning regions inside the regions. And I tasted 5,000 wines.

Holy goodness.
Yeah, it was a tough job. Glad I’m home.

But this is the golden age for wine. In the history of the world.

And why is that?
Because Chile and Argentina I wouldn’t have discussed 25 years ago.

Italy, even though they’ve been making wine for thousands of years ... Italy’s making the best wines they’ve ever made now.

Spain, now. Australia, now. South Africa, now. So great wine is being made throughout the world.

So people should drink more of it?
Well, first of all it’s healthy for you.

I mean, obviously you don’t want overconsumption. See, to me wine is a food. I don’t have wine without food. Never. If you want to go watch a sporting event with me, we go to a bar, I’m not ordering glass of wine.

To me it’s important. Every night I have wine with my dinner. It’s like having salt and pepper. People that are into wine know this as well, even if you’re not into wine, wine makes food tastes better. And food makes wine taste better.

You’ll be talking about food and wine pairings at C.R. Sparks in New Hampshire. Should people know a little about wine before they get into this topic? Is it challenging for people to grasp?
The great thing about all of this is to have fun. This is an extremely complicated subject.

You know what it’s like ... I’ve visited New Hampshire stores, on the throughway ... that’s very European, by the way. Of course, people say, oh, DWI and all this other stuff. And of course no one wants to be on the road with someone who’s consumed too much. That’s obvious. So what’s the difference, I mean, I’m trying to think how much other states can make to make it more convenient for people to get wine to bring home. They’re not going to pop it and drink it in their car. But in Europe ... you can actually stop in Europe to get gas, and walk in to buy bottles of wine to take home.

...Well, what I wanted to say was the dilemma for the consumer is “OK, we have all these great wines,” and I said this is a very difficult subject. I wouldn’t even want to think about not knowing anything about wine, and walking into one of your state stores. I would be overwhelmed. Look at the selection. Not just New Hampshire but in other places. You might have 6,000 wines. How do you know where to go?

That is an excellent question.
Well, that’s why you should buy my book.

Is that the first step for someone who feels overwhelmed?
Yes.

And it doesn’t have to be my book.... There’s a lot of good books out there.

My degree, by the way is elementary education.

Perfect.
Yeah. Kids drove me to drink. So I got into wine.

But I took my elementary education and put it together with wine, and wrote a book about it. My book is “Wine 101.” That’s why it’s sold so many copies.

But there are other books out there. Of course, I’m not going to mention them. But you go get a book.

Or, why am I coming up to New Hampshire?

Because people want to hear from somebody who knows something about wine. And I will lead them through different tastings of wine so that they feel better about this. It’s actually wine therapy. You’ve heard of aromatherapy? It’s not much different because think of what you’re doing. You’re smelling...

So.
One: Buy a book.

Two: Go to as many wine-tastings as you can go to.

Three: If there are wine classes that are available, take them.

Four: Find someone in your local retail outlet that knows something about wine, who can lead you. Very much like you would find good lawyer, a good accountant, good hairstylist. Find someone who knows something about wine.

How can people keep up?
There are wine publications. If they start getting the bug, they don’t even have to go to the wine publications, they can go to the Internet and get any information that they want, pretty much. But there are publications. One is called Wine Spectator. Another one is www.erobertparker.com. And I could give you 15 or 20. But all they have to do is Google wine, or wine information.

Are there any specifics in about learning about pairings, regarding how they can affect a person’s enjoyment of a meal?
There is ... a Mark Twain quote. And I abide by it. This is from 1895:

“There are no standards of taste and wine, cigars, poetry, prose, etc. Each man’s own taste is the standard. And the majority vote cannot decide for him, or in any slightest degree, affect the supremacy of his own standard.”

What does it come down to? No one tastes anything alike.
So if you enjoy a white zinfandel, enjoy it. If you enjoy a big, full-bodied, Cabernet Sauvignon, that’s what you’re going to like. I don’t want to put people in boxes. It’s not going to work. A lot of it has to do with age, taste ... remember 95 percent of taste is the smell.

Women have a better sense of smell than men. That’s a fact. Trust me, the best part of my book is the olfactory chapter.

From [age] 33, 34, 35, your acuity goes down. Gender makes a difference. Age makes a difference.

Does smoking make a difference?
It’s never really been proven, and I don’t smoke. But if smell is the most important thing, and somebody’s smoking in a room, especially cigars, what are you going to smell? Cigars. You’re not going to smell the wine. So obviously to me the combination doesn’t work.

But understanding the gender part. Understanding the age part. Understanding the experience part — I have a 16-year-old son, who, when I have a wine, he gets one ounce of it. And he actually has a journal, and he writes it down. Now somebody might say, “Well, that’s not good. You’re not doing the right thing.” But it’s an education I’m giving him. He’s taking one ounce of the wine, and he’s looking at it and he’s interested. I have four kids, and he’s the only one that’s interested. So he will probably go into the wine business not because I’m pushing him but because he’s interested in it.

Do you think, then, there’s less of a possibility of him binge-drinking Natural Light?
Yes. Yes. You know, you have to teach your children what’s right and wrong about what’s right and wrong. I’m a devout Catholic so I started studying wines when I was an altar boy, actually. But I think that if you have scare tactics ... and there needs to be openness in the house ... it’s like sex — if you don’t talk to your kids about sex then you got a problem. If you don’t talk to them about alcohol you got a problem. If you don’t talk to them about drugs, you’re going to have a problem.

So wine education...
I’m not trying to be too philosophical here, I’m a realist.

So, all of these things ... if you’re on medication, the tastes are going to change. If you like your steak rare versus well done, it will change the taste of the wine.

I’m going to stop now because I could give you 2,000 variables, why I can’t say, “This is going to go great with that dish.” Well, maybe it will. For me it definitely will, but for you it might not. It might be totally terrible.

Well, then, for you, is there anything you really like to eat and drink together, or recently that stood out to you?
Actually, there was an article that was done in September in the New York Times. It was all about Windows on the World, and Sept. 11, and the 25th-anniversary edition of my book. Yeah, I gave them a recipe. Scallops. And I gave them a white wine that I drink with that.

[The New York Times Sept. 30, 2009 Alex Witchel piece, “In a Season of Memory, a Toast to What Endures,” with a link to the recipe, is at www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/dining/30feed.html]

It was with the chef of Windows on the World, so we worked together again, by putting together this recipe, and I gave a French wine that I enjoy.

Do I have my favorites? Absolutely.

Do I think all day long about what wine I’m going to have with dinner? Absolutely. I have no idea what I’m going to drink tonight. Because I don’t even know what we’re going to have for dinner. Last night we had soup and sandwich. And I had a light red wine. I didn’t want to have anything that’s going to overpower anything that was on the table.

It doesn’t have to be a ritual is what I’m trying to say.

I think people get caught up that every time, they’ve got to have the right glassware. It’s got to be decanted. You’ve got to swirl it around a hundred times.

I remember one of my friends said years ago, “There’s too much excess hokum involved in wine tasting.” And I agree with that quote. Just enjoy it.

Find a wine you like, whether it’s $5.99, or $19.99 or $29.99, whatever it is. Find the wine that you enjoy.

Are there any unexpected or unique places we’ll start seeing good wines produced from?
Twenty-five years ago people rejected the wines of California.

They thought how could California produce anything that could be as good as, say, the French wines or the Italian wines. Today the wines of California are some of the best in the world. So is it in Oregon, Washington, New York State.

Take a look at your own state. Who would have said that there would be wineries in New Hampshire?

Maine ... think about just the temperature, climatic conditions that you have up there are very difficult to grow grapes. I’m into exploring things like wines of North Carolina. Wines of Pennsylvania.

One of my heroes in life was Thomas Jefferson.... Not only was he the president of the United States, but he was the ambassador to France. And you could actually end up calling him America’s first wine connoisseur.

He tried to plant grapes in Virginia. And unfortunately it never worked for him, but today because of modern technology, understanding of viticulture, they can grow grapes in Virginia and make a really good wine.

So the bottom line is you really don’t have to leave the United States. My wine cellar is a blend of wines from all over the world.

When a person walks into a large wine-tasting event like the Winter Wine Spectacular in New Hampshire, how can he or she approach it so they leave with useful information, rather than things muddling together?
If it’s a stand-up wine tasting and people are walking around, map it out before you even enter the room.

Sit there for 15 minutes. Usually, at all of these tastings, and I would imagine [at New Hampshire’s], because I know the people in charge of your tasting they know what they’re doing, they’ll give you a map of where everything is, and a brochure, something so that you can take notes.

Look. You’re not going to get to every wine, nor do you want to. You’re want to get to maybe 20. And again, you’re spitting it out at these events. If you’re swallowing it, you might as well forget it. We on the wine side hate to see people drinking everything. It doesn’t do anything for us. We want to see people asking questions about the wine. There are spittoons there. It might seem disgusting to do, but it’s the safest thing to do. If you spit out the wine, you can easily do 24 different wines.

And if you’re a white wine drinker, if you’re a Chardonnay drinker, then just stick with Chardonnays. Again, have rhyme or reason to what you’re doing there.

Sound advice.
I’m a veteran of these different wine-tastings. I think people have to also be very careful because it’s an atmosphere of jovial fun, an educational event. And you might forget … that there is still alcohol in wine. I’m not just saying that because of the trend. I’m just not a big drinker, to be honest with you. And I just enjoy learning about the subject. And I hope that the people that are going to this event are going as an educational thing, rather than a good time out. I don’t know how to say that any plainer.

There’s so much to learn. Because wine is all about people. It’s about cultures. It’s about geography. It’s about history. It’s about languages. That’s why I did it. I started off as a history major in college. I ended up in elementary ed. But I started studying wines when I was 19. And I started studying wines because I was a history major, and I was working in a restaurant, and I said, wow, this is great, look at the thousands of years of history behind all of this. I became fascinated by it.

So take it as educational experience, not a night out on the town. See how much you can learn. Those people behind the tables, they’re going to have some good information for you.

Some other quick guidelines:

In a normal situation you would do whites before reds. And you would do lighter whites before heavier whites.

I’m going to give you an example. Riesling is the name of grape. It’s much lighter than is a grape called Chardonnay. So you have a situation — you wouldn’t want to go from Chardonnay back to a Riesling. It actually will affect the taste of the Riesling, it will actually make it taste worse.

In a red wine, light to heavy. Again, I’ll give you an example, the lighter of the major red grapes, one is called Pinot Noir. And one of the heaviest grapes, heaviest wines, is Cabernet Sauvignon. So I wouldn’t do a Cabernet Sauvignon and then go to a Pinot Noir.

Now is that something that people can ask the folks behind the tables, to direct them if they are not sure?
Yes, they should be knowledgeable enough to answer that question. But again, you’re sitting down before you’re even going in the room and even mapping it out.

You know what, I’m going to give you the total progression:

So I’m walking into that room, and I would like to try a varied group of wines.

I’m going to start with Riesling. Then I’m going to go to a grape variety called Sauvignon Blanc, then I’m going to go to a grape variety called Chardonnay. Then I’m going to go to a grape variety called Pinot Noir. Then I’m going to try a grape variety called Merlot. Then I’m going to go to a grape variety called Cabernet Sauvignon. Then I’m going to go to a grape variety called Syrah.

Let’s say I had three of each, that’s 21 different tastes.

So that’s how I map that out.

You know I’m doing the Boston wine expo. And what usually happens is they have me go on before the doors open. So I’ll do a sit-down tasting for like 200 or 300 people. It’s called the One-Hour Wine Expert. And I do exactly that. I teach them what they’re going into. How to deal with the massive wine selection that they’re going to be confronting.

...Especially if you’re going in there for the first time, you know, work with the people, try and get as much information as you can from them. Bring a journal with you, so you can take down information. — Heidi Masek

World of Wine
Wine sellers & distributors give us a tour of the globe

Admittedly, the people who sell the wine won’t always be unbiased. But the wine distributors, wine store owner, a restaurant owner and wine bar owner here all know their wines and have a good sense of the lay of the land (or perhaps the lay of the terroir) in different regions of the world. What makes an Australian shiraz different from one from California? What makes a French bottle special? Why is South America the one to watch? We get these experts to weigh in on some of the most popular wine regions.

Jim Fadden on Australia
Jim Fadden, retail sales manager with Martignetti Companies of New Hampshire, took on Australia, which he said is still relatively new to the wine-making game.

Describe Australian wines —  what makes them uniquely Australian?
First of all, Australia is rather new to the wine business, having had the first vines planted in 1788. It has only been since the late ’80s that they geared up their production for export. They are now the fourth-largest wine export country. We forget sometimes that Australia is a large continent with 74 wine-growing regions with varying growing conditions and soils. But what we mostly associate Australian wine with is the grapes grown in the Southern and New South Wales regions. The wines from here (both red and white) are known for their fruit-forward, easy-drinking style. They appeal to a wide range of consumers who don’t have to be wine geeks to enjoy them.

What do you like about Australian wines? What do you think they do best?
If you love their easy-drinking style then the next thing you like about them is affordability. They have a very good, easy-drinking/value ratio.

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked wines from Australia should try, to convince them to explore more Australian wines.
It’s a red: Layer Cake Shiraz from the McLaren Vale district, a real diverse growing area with the Gulf of St. Vincent to their backs and the Terra Rosa Soils (red soil) on the hillsides. The different berry sizes produced in these microclimates blended together is what gives this wine its distinctive flavor. One hundred percent Shiraz aged in French oak barrels (50 percent new). This is one inky Shiraz, an explosion of dark, super-ripe berries with a touch of cigar box and exotic spices. This wine loves grilled lamb chops, and bring out your favorite blue cheese for this one.

Name three wines from Australia available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of Australian wines they best demonstrate.
Yellow Tail Chardonnay. The Yellow Tail wines are the fastest-growing wines in the history of wine-making. This is a quintessential fruit-forward, easy-drinking chardonnay, everybody-loves-it wine, for everyday enjoyment. You will never miss [by] serving this at your next family function.

Penfolds Koonunga Hills Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon. Blending is something the Australians have always done extremely well. This wine has good concentration of fruit and is in a drier style than most Shiraz at this price point; great flavors of blackberry with good gripping tannins. Extremely food-friendly; great with a lamb chop or barbecue.

Trevor Jones Jonesy Port. A Port? Australia? Yes, this is where it all started. They planted grapes in Australia to make their version of Ports, Sherries and dessert wines. (They call them stickies.) The problem with shipping wine, in those days by boat, was the bouncing ocean voyage and the heat the wine had to pass through when crossing the equator. These fortified wines with their added brandy cured these travel woes. Robert Parker once said of this wine, “What a sensational value! Extraordinary bouquet of sweet candied fruit intermixed with notions of maple syrup, earth and hazelnuts. This gorgeous tawny delivers plenty of pleasure.” Bring out the cheese platter for this one. — Jeff Mucciarone

Scot Kinney on California
Wine expert Scot Kinney owns the restaurant UnWine’d, located at 865 Second St. in Manchester. With UnWine’d receiving regular accolades for its wine list, Kinney knows how to pick out a good bottle.

Describe California wines? What makes them uniquely California?
California wines are indigenous to the rich soil in which they are grown. Structured to be like that of our country’s population: strong, powerful and yet elegant and diverse. They are unique in their style and complexity and really put “New World” wines on the map.

What do you like about California wines? What do you think they do best?
I personally like the range you can find in California; there is a lot of variety to appeal to every palate. I think one of the things that California has done so well and that other countries are trying to emulate is to be able to produce such different styles of wine from one region. Ranging from the big, bold and rich style they put on the map, to the subtle earthy Old World style.

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked wines from California should try, to convince them to explore more of California’s wines.
A wine that I would confidently recommend to anyone looking to venture into California wines is anything from the Beaulieu Vineyards of Napa Valley. They have been making wine since 1900 in the Napa Valley and have touched all the bases.

Name three wines from California available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of California’s wines they best demonstrate.
Anybody talking California wines should first recommend a Zinfandel; this varietal is home to California.

One available in New Hampshire is Rosenblum Cellars. They produce a wide variety of Zinfandels and produce wines that are true to the varietal’s characteristics, rich, spicy, jammy, high in alcohol and packed with fruit. A second wine I would recommend is the Buena Vista Chardonnay, a classic California Chardonnay. Buena Vista is one of California’s oldest running wineries. This Chardonnay is full-bodied with domestic oak and buttery flavors, rich and elegant, very Californian in style. The third and final has to be a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. One that always comes to mind is The Silver Oak Winery, Napa Valley Cabernet. Such history with this wine, Silver Oak only produces Cabernet Sauvignon. One from Napa and one from Alexander Valley, Sonoma. They are very focused on the tradition of California wine-making. The wines are structured, complex, age worthy and really define the soil-terroir in which they are grown.— Jeff Mucciarone

Charles Saunders on France
Charles Saunders founded New England’s Les Chevaliers du Grand Vin in 1995. “The Knights of Great Wine” Wine Society has grown to about 8,000 members, and currently its two stores are in Tyngsboro, Mass. (18C Pond View Place — which is slated to close at the end of the month) and Nashua (650 Amherst St., 883-4114). Members attend dinners with winemakers, tastings, the Wine Society book club, classes and trips. In the Nashua shop, snapshots of winemakers and vineyards are posted above wines from those people and places. The Wine Society also employs a chef.

Describe France’s wines — what makes them uniquely French?
Well, the main thing about French wines is that the French people have a long history of cuisine.

In fact the word cuisine, in English, is kitchen. But in France it means more than the kitchen. It means the food from that place. So their foods, over the past thousand years, I would say, at least a thousand years, have had a complement by wine. And that’s truly unique.

In fact, in a French cuisine, you’ll find a wine rack. And if you go to a maison, or a house, or villa, or chateau, and you go to the cuisine you will see a wine rack. If you say “Qu’est-ce que c’est le vin?” — in other words, ‘What would you call this wine?’ — if you’re in the kitchen, the people there would say it’s “vin de cuisine,” which means the wine that goes with food from the kitchen. Now that’s pretty unique. We see that a little bit in other places, but mainly in France.... And that’s what leads us to believe that wine is food.

In other words if you’re planning a dinner, and you’re having a chicken pot pie ... mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce. OK, the next question is “What is the wine?”

So wine and food in France have all these years of being tested. In fact if neighbors, people of a different part of France, have fish, for example, and the wines they made didn’t go with the fish, one or the other would have changed so that they become compatible. Either the chef would change the sauce or the winemaker might pick the grapes a little bit earlier, to make them more acidic, or pick them a little bit later to make them more sweet.

...If you consider that, like Bordeaux is a very large city, the size of Boston, and it’s right on the ocean. So people... go out and catch fish, and then their cousins or brothers or relatives own a vineyard and they make wine, so the fish comes in and the wine goes with fish. Whereas if you get way further inland, there’s no fish there (well, there is because of modern transportation) so their wines have a tendency to go with other dishes, not fish. So it all makes logical sense. The wines from the regions fit cuisines from the regions....

And no place in the world has that gone on for so long, so that that culture now embodies that food-and-wine pairing. So that truly makes the wines of France unique. Because most other places — Taiwan or Taipei or China or other places — that’s not built into the culture for 2,000 years. So it truly makes French wine unique.

What do you like about French wines? What do you think they do best?
Well, again, based on that theme, what I like about French wines is how well they go with the cuisine, the foods, of different parts of France. Whether you’re in the Loire Valley, and have salmon or chicken or ... the wines from that area are so compatible with the dishes. I love that about French wines...

...And that’s what we try to do in our business. In other words when someone comes by our shop...we’ll say well this wine goes particularly well with this particular dish...

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked French wines should try, to convince them to explore more of the region’s wines.
Do those people like French cuisine? ...Well, for example, if they have ever had pâté, and they like pâté, most pâté in France — is everywhere — but particularly in Gascony, where d’Artagnan is from, the fourth Musketeer. And their wines are particularly nice with pâté. So if they like pâté...then wines from Gascony would be pleasing to them.

...A white Bordeaux [from] Graves [Graves is a region just south and east of the city of Bordeaux] would be a particularly nice wine to have with fish. In fact we have a particular wine called Tour de Mirambeau, which we have paired time and time again with swordfish and sea bass, and people who would say, “Well, I don’t like white wine,” or “I don’t really like dry wine,” when they’re having sea bass with the Tour de Mirambeau, I’ve yet to meet somebody who didn’t like that because it pairs so well.

So it really depends on what food they are going to eat, what wine should try?
Yes, because often people will come to our business — you know we have two stores? They’ll come to our store and say, ‘Oh, I’m looking for nice white wine.’ Well, we have no idea who they are ... when they were born, what country their ancestors were born in. So how would we know what wine they would like? So what we usually do is ask them what they’re going to serve. And then we would pair the wine with that dish...and more often than not, quite often, they’ll come back and say that was a perfect wine...

Name three wines from France that are available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of French wines they best demonstrate.
If I just did three whites, one would be the Tour de Mirambeau from Bordeaux.

Another would be Muscadet from the Loire Valley which is north of there, from the city of Nantes. And that’s our favorite wine with raw oysters.

And then chicken, for example, the Loire Valley of France, and I would just say Vouvray is the one. That’s our favorite wine with chicken.

… And then if you like red wines. In general, there’s a good year from Bordeaux out right now, and all of France actually, vintage 2005. We like Bordeaux. We pair that with red meat, like roast beef and lamb, like lamb chops.

And then we like Rhone wines with large roasts, like roast lamb.

And then Burgundys. They’re the pinot noir grapes from Burgundy. Those are our favorite with prime rib.

And we do like French wines, but not to the expense of anybody else. But most of our educational courses are based on California wine-making techniques. And French, what I would say, pairings of wines with foods. — Heidi Masek

Rich Girard on Germany
Rich Girard, sales manager for Perfecta Wine Company, discussed German wines via e-mail.

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked German wines should try to convince them to explore more wines from Germany.
I have been with the [Perfecta Wine Company] since 2004 and did travel to Germany for an eight-day tour of the estates that we represent. We sampled 263 wines in eight days and got to see some unbelievable estates. There is a lot of history in the wine industry in Germany going back almost a thousand years. There is something to say that they have got it down when making their world-class Rieslings. In fact, we represent one estate that is 32 generations into the wine-making business, which is about 800 years. They are the oldest continuous running wine-making family in Germany. The house is Schloss Wallhausen, which leads into my answering your question, on which wine would I chose for someone to try, and that is their Two Princes Riesling. The current vintage, 2008, just received from Wine and Spirits 91 points.

The bottle retails for $12.99. Trying this wine will give the first-time user just enough fruit that he or she will enjoy the taste of the wine.

For the person who never liked the German wines, it is probably they have been drinking [very sweet] wines, which the majority of people do not like. So if they have the opportunity to try a wine from a grand estate they will not get that overly sweet wine.

Describe German wines — what makes them uniquely German?
What makes them uniquely German is first the Riesling grape itself, the terroir that they grow in and the unique locations that the vines grow in.... Think of slate for the soil, very steep hills, almost 70 percent in places, and rivers that act as warm conduits to give the grapes the warmth they need to ripen. You have to remember that the area we are talking about is on the 50-degree parallel, which is very north for growing grapes. Finally, the long history of grape-growing from the Romans to the Monks who were initially responsible for all of the wine-making.

What do you like about German wines? What do you think they do best?
Only German wines will express the three qualities of an excellent Riesling: the bright acidity; the fruitiness; and the minerality. When you have all of the qualities in the wine, you have an excellent balance that just excites your taste buds.

I will digress here a bit so that you can understand the levels of German wines. In Germany they collect grapes at sugar levels in the grape. Germany is probably one of the few countries that collects grapes in such a way. They will collect grapes at four different sugar levels with the first picked having the least amount of sugar, [and] the fourth having the most. The levels are designated as QBA, Kabinett, Spatlese and Auslese.

From the last level you will create Berenauslese, Trockenberen Auslese and the famous Eiswein. In my opinion, once you have experienced a German Riesling, all others pale in comparison.

Name three German wines available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of the region’s wines they best demonstrate.
There are not many German wines that I do not enjoy but I will pick the following, each from a different area. They are currently available in various locations, but you have to remember that many have limited production each year so they tend to disappear quickly.

Then you have to wait for next year’s vintage.
Johannishof “V” Riesling Kabinett 2007 from the Rheingau region: Incredible balance of the three properties that I mentioned earlier. The key word here is “balance” of those properties.

Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Piesporter Goldtropfchen Kabinett 2007 from the Mosel region: There are almost 700 years of wine-making at this estate. The wine is bright with mouthwatering acidity with a nice touch of fruit. The key word here is “minerality.”

Valkenberg Dry Estate Riesling QBA from the Rheinhessen region: This Riesling is trocken, meaning dry with bright acidity. The key word here is “acidity.” — Heidi Masek

Pasquale Celone on Italy
Pasquale Celone is the chef and owner of Pasquale’s Italian Ristorante in Candia (143 Raymond Road, pasqualeincandia.com, 483-5005). Born in a coastal town south of Naples called Torre Annunziata, he first became interested in the kitchen as a child, learning from his mother and nonna. He studied at the Culinary Institute of Santa Maria del Toro in Vico Equense, also on the coast.

Describe Italy’s wines — what makes them uniquely Italian?
What really makes them [the wines on Pasquale’s wine list] authentically Italian is that they are produced by small producers, where the government, for you to get DOCG or DOC, you have to produce a certain amount of a grape per year, per hectare of land. What that does — it really puts a high quality of wine, because you don’t overproduce the grape vine.

And that’s why the government gives you that stamp. But it’s not easy to get. And once you get that DOCG or DOC — it means the denomination of origin control, it means the government controls, and of course the farmer has to be legally following the specific rules — he can only produce a certain amount of grape per year per hectare of land. They can only produce so many tons of grape. And that’s what makes it very unique.

We don’t go into companies where they mass produce millions of bottles because they are waiting for the consumer to get these wines into their grocery store. We don’t go with … not mentioning any names, you know like typical Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay or Merlot, that you would find on the typical shelf at the local grocery store. 

We find the wines that are produced in small quantities and the flavor is just unbelievable. And to tell you the truth, the price never really determines how good the wine really is. Sometimes you can find a bottle of wine that is very inexpensive but is really delicious.

What do you like about Italian wines? What do you think they do best?
Well, what I like about the Italian wines is that typically it’s wines that are designed to do well with the region. … that’s why each winery has what’s called a vinologist. And what they are is people that — it’s like making a recipe, and they always make it so it goes well with the food.

What I like mostly about Italian wines is they go very well with the foods that we do here at the restaurant, or any other Italian restaurant that produces any kind of a southern or maybe northern Italian dish, such as a nice osso bucco, or maybe a nice coniglio rabbit cacciatore. Or, what I’m well known for is fish or seafood dishes. And we have a fantastic white wine that goes so well with the food, because you know they are typically designed to go well with region. Like in my particular region, being from Campania, we have great seafood dishes, we have linguine frutti de mare, we have linguine clams. We do a lot of fish, from red snapper to trout to haddock. But in Mediterranean-style cooking with extra virgin olive oil and capers and fresh herbs and seasoning, the wine really goes very well with it. We have a typica, l Campania wine ... Greco di Tufo or Fiano di Avellino. It’s fantastic wine, and, you know, just the bouquet and the color and the perfume of it, it goes so well with the food.

So that’s what I really like about Italian wines. I don’t really typically find a good wine from California that really goes well with the food or at least my kind of food — the seafood dishes that we do.

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked Italian wines should try, to convince them to explore more Italian wines.
Oh, absolutely. It’s kind of funny that you ask that question because I always try to persuade my own guests to try wine from my own home region. Eighty percent of my menu is Italian, yes, but it’s mostly from Campania region. In each region, every single little town in Italy has their own kind of food and their own recipes. And there’s tons and tons of recipes and thousands of wines.

But I always tell them to try the Fiano di Avellino....

The red wine, believe it or not, is actually also from Campania, and it’s called the Taurasi. And Taurasi is actually made in the town of Taurasi, but the actual grape is a 100-percent Aglianico ... those wines are available here at the restaurant — but personally I really like it to go with the food that we do. Because for the red, for the Taurasi, we do like a fantastic grilled lamb chops, we do like a grilled baby rack of lamb. And that is really fantastic wine to go with it.

And also for the Fiano di Avellino, all the dishes that we do, from the fish to the seafood plates, like frutti di mar or linguine clams or linguine with the shrimp, goes so well — the wine complements the food very, very well.

So I always try to recommend the Campania because it is the region that I’m from. I came from Campania almost 20 years ago. But of course northern Italy has some fantastic wine, but it seems like, as you know, southern Italy has never really been recognized as having really good wines. But it’s just because it doesn’t get advertised as much as the north of Italy does. And 80 percent of the market in America is all wines from Toscana and up in the north of Italy. But I wish we could see more of the wines at Campania, even at the regular grocery store, or even at the restaurants, to have more of those wines available for the public and the restaurants. That would be great if I could see that one day. 

Can you name three Italian wines available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of wines from Italy they best demonstrate?
You mean available at the liquor store or available in New Hampshire? We have a great selection of wines but unfortunately only available through a liquor warehouse, to restaurants. ...Unless they walk into a specialty store, you know for example Angela’s Pasta Shop, or maybe a few other small places....

Well, there [are] really some wines that are really taking over the industry.... One, for example, is called a Super Tuscan. It’s Dogajolo. It’s a really fantastic wine but they call it Super Chianti because it’s basically 80 percent Sangiovese, which is actually Chianti, and 20 percent Cabernet. So the combination of the two really makes this wine really fantastic and very food-friendly. And it’s one that I’d recommend the most.

The other wine is actually a white wine, and it’s called Amabile, Orvieto Amabile. And Orvieto Amabile is a fantastic white wine. It’s very, I would say, like a woman-friendly wine. And the reason why I say that is because it kind of resembles a little bit of white Zinfandel. And you know that little bit of sweetness remains on your palate once you drink the wine. So people really enjoy this wine... and that is also available at some of the specialty stores and even some of the liquor stores carry this wine as well.

Those two are some of my favorites. But there is another one from southern Italy which is actually Primitivo.... Primitivo is really taking over the market. It’s basically a red Zinfandel. Who knows when somebody must have planted that plant here in America in California years ago and made a pink Zinfandel because they take the skin off and then, years ago, they just decided to make red Zinfandel. So that’s actually going really well — the Primitivo. So between those three I’ve got to say those are … my favorites, very food-friendly wines. — Heidi Masek

Gustavo Moral on South America
Gustavo Moral, owns The Imported Grape, LLC, of Bedford (566-3197). The Imported Grape is in its fifth year of importing and distributing wines, with a focus on those from South America. Moral discussed South American wines via e-mail.

Describe the South American wines — what makes them uniquely South American?
The tradition of wine-making in South America goes back to the era of colonization when the Europeans and particularly the Spaniards brought their vines and wine-making tradition to the New World. Subsequent European immigration brought additional vines. While initially this consumption was mostly local, gradually they began to make export-quality wine, with Chile being a pioneer in this respect. What has made South America a producer of good wines is that its major wine regions are in the same latitude as some of the great wine-producing regions of the world, add longer growing seasons and good terroir with modern technology, and we have great products at great values. Good examples are the “national” wines of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay; their grapes, Malbec, Carmenère and Tannat respectively, are French grapes that are doing much better in South America partly due to a longer growing season. As an example, the French may use a process called micro-oxygenation whereby they inject oxygen into the Tannat wine to soften it; in Uruguay it is not necessary, in fact the wine has more of a fruity characteristic than in France.

What do you like about South American wines? What do you think they do best?
Nowadays they are making so many different varietals and blends that you can no longer “pigeonhole” their production to one or two types. They are experimenting with a variety of grapes and guess what? They are succeeding! State-of-the-art wineries have sprouted everywhere or old wineries have been updated. They certainly do their “national” grapes very well, whether they utilize wood barrels to age the wine or not. Chile traditionally has had some great Cabernet Sauvignons, Sauvignon Blancs and Merlots. They are coming with the “Super Chilean,” a great example being a Viña Maquis with a blend of 42 percent Syrah, 30 percent Carmenère, 12 percent Cabernet Franc, 9 percent Petit Verdot and 7 percent Malbec. You can even venture with a Viognier from Uruguay or a Semillon from Argentina or a port-style dessert wine. It is not uncommon now to see South American wines with ratings of high 80s as well as 90s using the Wine Spectator scale as a point of reference. Additionally, I think that they are still a very good value.

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked South American wines should try, to convince them to explore more wines from South America.
With the proliferation of wine-tastings I encourage people to actually go out of their comfort zone and to try something different, so using that premise I would definitely try their “national” grapes, the Tannat, the Malbec and the Carmenère — they are unique and different and very good. The Malbec is perhaps the better-known variety of the South Americans right now, but I see that being balanced out once people begin to give the Tannat and the Carmenère a try. You can also try bi-varietal blends with the “national” grape, such as Tempranillo-Tannat, Carmenère-Cabernet, Malbec-Bonarda. Also, I would venture to suggest for them to try their favorite varietal from whatever country it may be and made in the fashion that they like, meaning, at the basic level, wood vs. no wood. So if you like a Chardonnay from California aged in wood, I would suggest a Bouza Chardonnay aged 8 months in French oak; or if they prefer something without wood I would do likewise with one from South America; a safe apples-to-apples comparison would be the Sauvignon Blanc as it is made generally without wood. So go ahead and do a comparison tasting night between your favorite wine and one from the same type from South America and if you want to have more fun, do it blind; don’t be surprised by the outcome.

Name three South American wines available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of South American wines they best demonstrate.
Staying with the theme of the national grapes and their inherent unique qualities I would suggest:

Ricardo Santos Malbec from Argentina made by the first Argentinean to export Malbec to the U.S. over 30 years ago. This is a fruity, aromatic wine with soft tannins and a nice alcohol level for a sweet perception with no residual sugar. A rich extracted Malbec atypical of most from Argentina. $18.49  — January sale $17.49.

Envero Carmenère from Chile is from the prestigious Apalta region in the Colchagua Valley. Made of 90% Carmenère and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, Envero’s dark, rich fruit is complemented by eight months in French oak. All the fruit comes from the Apalta region, with the vines being over 50 years old. Complex and interesting. $15.49.

Bouza Tannat from Uruguay comes from a top boutique winery. This fruity and elegant 100% Tannat is hand- picked and aged 17 months in French and American oak. The bottles are numbered to signify their limited production. Earned medal in recently held contest in South America “Tannat to the World.”  $18.99 — January sale $15.99. — Heidi Masek

David Duhamel on Spain and Portugal
David Duhamel and Nat Saywell of RP Imports, a wine distribution company in Manchester, tackled wines from Spain and Portugal.

Describe wines from Spain and Portugal ? what makes wines from this region unique?
Spanish wines tend to be more “modern,” bridging styles between Europe and the Americas. Portuguese wines have two feet firmly in the Old World. These wines tend to be higher in acids and tannins, with more “rustic” flavors. Like what you find throughout Europe, Spain and Portugal have differing styles of wines based upon the local foods. If one region is on the coast and relies on seafood for the majority of their dishes, you find light, crisp whites. If another region has a lot of game or hearty vegetables, you will find big reds. As regional food styles have evolved, so have the regional wine styles. This is what makes it fun to discover regions — for both food and wine.

What do you like about wines from Spain and Portugal? What do you think they do best?
Both countries produce great food wines, wines that complement food versus dominating over food. Tempranillo from Spain comes in many different styles based upon who makes it and where it is grown. Ports from Portugal are deliciously indulgent. Albarino from the northwest coast of Spain is delicious with New England seafood.

Name a wine that somebody who has never had or never liked wines from Spain and Portugal should try, to convince them to explore more of this region’s wines.
Telmo Rodriguez’ “Basa” white wine will change how anyone thinks about Spanish wines. It’s a blend of two indigenous grapes, Viura and Verdejo, blended with a little Sauvignon Blanc, a modern “Bridge Wine.” It is the world’s best lobster wine.

Name three wines from Spain/Portugal available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of the region they best demonstrate.
Telmo Rodriguez Basa, Quinta do Noval’s 10 year Tawny Port and Ferrer Bobet Priorat. — Jeff Mucciarone

Craig Pierce on lesser-known wine regions
Craig Pierce, fine wine and spirits specialist for Martignetti Companies of New Hampshire and before that a regular wine columnist for the Hippo, weighed in on wine regions that don’t get as much attention as places like California and Italy.

What are some wine regions that are producing really good wine that don’t get as much attention as some of the other big-name wine regions?
Up and coming domestically speaking is Washington State. It’s not an unknown but is clearly a sleeping brute. With 650-plus wineries and 350-plus commercial wine grape-growers, these folks are here to stay. If we measure their quality progress charts and forecast using this incredible pace, California is going to be sucker-punched from the north. Washington shares a latitude fix with Bordeaux and the wines are noticeably more sophisticated with every vintage. For imports, watch for China’s entrée to the wine world. A bit has leaked into the marketplace, but the Chinese government, ever patient for opportunity, is listening to their consultants that have been telling them to wait for mature vines and a supply system that won’t hiccup once the spigot is turned on. It’ll still be mediocre when it starts, but I bet it’s cheap and gets incrementally better within five or six vintages with little or no price change…. A little scary for other world producers.

What do you like about opting for wines from less popular regions?
Simple…they have to try harder, so a $20 bottle tastes like a $30 bottle, instead of the other-way-around experience you get from far too many of the industry leaders who are riding their appellation’s cache.

Name a wine from a particular non-mainstream region that people should try, to convince them to explore more of that region’s wines.
Hedges CMS Red from Washington’s Columbia Valley. It’s an affordable blend of three varietals where each taste is a welcomed invitation for the next sip.

Name three wines from different non-mainstream regions that are available in New Hampshire and explain why you like them and what features of the particular region they best demonstrate.
Israel – Recanati Sauvignon Blanc. [State liquor store code 40655.] Wine from the holy land that drinks as well as any table wine in its price range. I am fond of it just because of the history of the place — an aspect of wine that has always intrigued me. We’re proving that grape presses were around 7,000-plus years ago. I’m betting civilized man has always known the very best use for grape juice…. Washington — the above-mentioned Hedges CMS Red. [State liquor code 6687.] That Bordeaux kinship, I swear, shows in the Washington wines. There’s a minerality in Old World wines that pulls you in and keeps you enthralled once you acquire a taste for it. This wine gives you a peek at that aspect, while over-delivering on fruit and balance. Love it. New Zealand – Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc. [State liquor store code 38370.] You notice a wine guy picks two whites by now … in the winter red wine season no less. I am blessed to work with highly experienced wine people, and, confession time here, we at Martignetti each have a little sauvignon blanc fetish. The acid level of this grape lends itself to being able to rise to the occasion with a wide variety of foods … oh yeah, we all like to eat great food too…. This grape takes well to all sorts of differing treatment at the wine production level. Interesting, rather unique sauvies abound on our globe. New Zealand in a decade has come to own the category. Its wines are generally brash, unapologetic, and just a ton of fun to drink with a great meal. Oyster Bay from the coveted Marlborough region is among the finest examples of affordable Kiwi sauvie to be found. — Heidi Masek