Wine & Food Magazine - Wine Snobs?

In the September issue of Wine & Food Magazine, Lettie Teague contributed an interesting article on vintages. The article examined vintages from different wine regions around the globe. However, at the end of the article she took a dig at many of us by writing that vintage doesn't matter for grocery store wine - so for those who purchase these wines, disregard the entire article. Maybe we are being overly sensitive, but from our many travels talking to wine drinkers, "grocery" store wines are what most people can afford on a daily basis. Including us; our price range is from $10-$15 for everyday table wine. And there are excellent wines in this price range - and from our experience vintages do matter for these wines. We've seen yearly differences between lower priced Virginia Cabernet Franc, Missouri Norton, Texas Lenoir, or a Washington\Finger Lakes Riesling - say Chateau Ste. Michelle among others.

She also takes the easy explanation and blames drought conditions on global warming when in fact the earth has cooled dramatically over the past eight years. Even if there were global warming - many scientists predict that that phenomenon would produce more rain because of increased evaporation. Instead, cooler conditions are more likely to produce drought conditions. At least that's what our meteorology guru Joe Bastardi writes.