NPR, Wine Tasteing, & Audiophiles

The Spanish wines are a good value as the Italian wines used to be (but are now expensive). I was just in Spain and some of their wine regions are going Napa so I expect their prices to increase too. But the sad thing is the price of any of these wines in Europe. They are all cheap!

I've lived in Europe on a couple of different equations, and it always hurts going back to the states. Not that we can't get good wine, but man-oh-man do we pay a premium for it. I mean, even for Californian ones...some you can't even get if you're not on the Vineyard's list! I know prices go up because of importing costs, but the main difference is that you're hard pressed to get a drinkable bottle of wine in the US, domestic or otherwise, for 6 bucks. MAYBE, you could find a chilean or argentinian for around the same price, but I there are so many cheap bottles here that are really quite nice. I have a couple friends with pretty impressive cellars (just had a 1927 vintage port!) and they frequently put down some sub 8-dollar wines that turn out splendidly. However, I've been known on occasion to put down a box of franzia....just insert a straw into the top and it's pretty easy from there.

i dont know anything about wine but i drink alot of cognac & i can tell ya that if you drink a bottle of rot gut you'll wake up with 1 hell of a mess on your hands while on the otherhand you can down a whole bottle of xo supreme & wake up feeling right as rain.

blind testing or not im sticking with the good stuff.

The difference is huge. Wine all starts with grapes, and then gets processed.

Audio components have a lot more to do with materials that go into the product, engineering, and usually the heavier the better (shipping costs).

Too much of a stretch to compare the two.

ROFL R_f_sayles!!!

The blind test mentioned on NPR was held in 1976, in Paris, with a highly respected panel of French judges. California wines won both the red and white tests, against truely excellent French wines. It is considered the "start" of the California wine industry as it is known today.

For what it is worth, it is also considered the begining of tighter quality control in France. They were very embarrased.

Myself, I subscribe to what Ray Charles said about music, and find it is true for wine as well. To paraphrase, there are only two kinds of music; good, and the rest of it.

Dave