The lake of wine

I just read this post

http://seattlewineblogger.blogspot.com/2007/05/australian-marketing-machine-makes-260.html

again, and I feel that I must respectfully respond. Particularly to the point about Australian wine only being good at the absolute top and bottom ends of the price scale. My experience does not really mesh with this at all – I actually don’t particularly enjoy the cheaper Australian offerings at all. The majority of my drinking is done at the $15 – $30 price point with Australian wine, and occasionally I venture even into the triple digits. The only reason that I don’t drink $50 bottles of Australian wine more often is because I can’t afford to. If I could I would literally be buying cases of the stuff and digging a big hole in the ground to store them in.

There are two reasons why this blogger might have developed this opinion. Perhaps this person does not like the Australian style of wine – I have a co-worker from France who finds Australian wine too strong for his taste (which is funny, because I find most French and Italian stuff to be watery and fruity juice tasting). There is no right or wrong to this, it is a matter of taste.

The other reason may be that this blogger might not have had much *good* Australian wine in these price points. Indeed, even living on the west coast it can be hard to find the fine examples, and I personally think that many wine buyers in supermarkets around here share the opinion that Australian wine is either “value” or “collectible” and don’t stock anything else. There are many small and medium size wineries making great stuff at every price point, you just need to look around somewhere other than a supermarket or anywhere else that stocks “International Wine” without knowing a lot about what to stock.

I think that the easiest way to sample great Australian reds is to sign up at Garagiste, and buy a bottle of anything red that fits into your target price point. They are very good at choosing great stuff and were a boon to me in terms of beefing up the collection. Pete’s wine in Bellevue and Seattle Wine Co in Bellevue also have a great selection of Australian wines. I found a bottle of Yalumba Octavius at Pete’s, and everything I saw in Seattle Wine Co last time I was there looked top notch.

Where do I buy wine?

Here are some hints for you if you want to buy some wine in the Puget Sound area. I don’t particularly shop at one place all of the time, I like to look around different stores to see what they have.

• Whole Foods – being a national chain they get some pretty good deals on some things, and they have some interesting stuff on display at times. Since I buy a lot of food there it is convenient to get everything at once.
• Larry’s Markets – they are still open in Redmond, and I have found great deals and selection there in the past (and continue to now).
• Garagiste – these guys get wicked deals on great wine. But they don’t stock wine like a regular shop.
• Seattle Wine Company - this Bellevue shop has tastings and the owner really knows how to stock good stuff.
• Fine Wine and Cigars – this Redmond shop has a great selection and in my experience stocks some high end stuff that some people have trouble with.

The last time I went to Australia I was shocked to see what the wine purchasing story was there. Granted, I am an Australian Shiraz nut but these stores were ridiculous. Australia has a long standing culture of booze appreciation so it makes sense that the booze stores are something to behold, but I was still taken aback by the stuff on offer. Even Sydney airport had a spectacular selection right at the gate when I was leaving back in March.

What I like to see in a Wine shop is being able to shop based on region or variety very efficiently. Some stores have things arranged first by variety (bad) or they bunch up a lot of countries into one place (also bad). For some reason it makes the most sense to me to have a section per region and then per winery if possible, because that is most likely how I will search for something that I am looking for or for something that I have not had before.