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As someone who loves writing and wine, it was a quick and easy call 17 years ago when the local newspaper publisher asked me to write about wine in his publication.
It has been a happy 17 years with too many joys to mention. But there are downsides. Tasting a lot of wine is part of the job, and that can become tedious. That is especially true of boring, cookie-cutter wines.
Often identified as “supermarket wines” or “mass production wines.” Meiomi and Mark West are among the best known—they sell hundreds of thousand bottles a year (Meiomi, one milllion)—but there are many others. They are not terrible wines with obvious flaws. Usually there are no flaws, but wines designed to have no flaws in mass production also means they have no soul. They are boring. Taste enough of them and you are besieged by a depressing ennui.
Maksym Kozlenko
Such wines will be fruit-forward approaching jammy. There likely is some residual sugar to flirt with sweetness. They will be around 14.5% ABV. Reds likely will be blends, but cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir will be 75% of the blend, just qualifying them to be labeled by the varietal name.
If they don’t go for a varietal naming, they will be labeled with a focus-group refined name concocted by their marketing department with special attention on an eye-catching label. When wines taste much the same, the key to success is what the bottle looks like standing upright on a crowded supermarket shelf.
For the same money, you can experience distinctive wines that reflect the place and time they were made and offer individualistic takes on what constitutes wine. Their production numbers will be far less. They can come from anywhere, but South America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal) particularly abound in such values. I don’t want to slight the Languedoc of France, various part of Italy (especially Sicily), and others—including smaller operations in California, Oregon, and Washington State—the list could go on. You get the idea.
My wine reviews gravitate to such wines, while affordability and availability (internet wine sales really help here) remain important considerations.
As long-time readers know, I consider myself a writer who happens to write about wine rather than a wine cognoscente attempting to be a writer. Also, a curator rather than a critic. If I publish a wine review, I do so because I think readers may find in it something to enjoy. I chose to spend our limited time together presenting a wine worth trying rather than warning you about a wine to avoid.
If you enjoy them, there is no reason to avoid supermarket, mass production wines. They are often serviceable, if rarely exciting. If you dare for something beyond bland, I offer you my tasting notes.
Tasting notes
• Domaine Bousquet Gaia Cabernet Franc, Gualtallary Vineyards, Mendoza, Argentina 2018: Rich, tasty, balanced cab franc from one the world’s leading producers of organically-farmed wine. Tasting this at seven years old mellowed the wine, it also proved its ageability for an affordable wine. $15-18 Link to my review
• Bodegas Virgen del Galir Pagos del Galir A Malosa Godello, Valdeorras DO, Spain 2020: Premium white wine made with godello, Spain’s come-back grape. Excellent taste and body. Elegant, subtle, wonderfully reflects rugged terroir of the Valdeorras DO, especially its minerality. $15-21 Link to my review
• Dr. Konstantin Frank Dry Riesling Finger Lakes 2023: Another example of Dr. Konstantin Frank’s masterful skill with riesling in the Finger Lakes region of northwestern New York State. Keuka Lake provides superb conditions for cold-climate riesling grapes, as does the region’s soil composition. The Keuka Lake plots provide the bulk of the grapes and their shallow, shale-based soils deliver minerality, acidity, and structure. $20 Link to my review
Last round
If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving probably is not for you. Wine time.
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Links worth exploring
Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane.
As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires.
Dave McIntyre’s WineLine Longtime Washington Post wine columnist now on Substack. Entertaining, informative.
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