Wine, Beer, and Spirits

Every New Years people rush out to the liquor store to buy Champagne and find that the good stuff is all way out of their price league. They buy the mid-range stuff and are often disappointed. The word Champagne merely indicates that the wine is from a certain region of France. It has nothing to do with the quality. My recommendation is to completely ignore Champagne and get a good Prosecco from Italy. In my experience it almost always tastes better and it is far less expensive. Don't let the snobs convince you to waste your money. Prosecco has just as many bubbles as Champagne. I can still taste the prosecco I had at a cafe in Capris. It's good stuff.

Over at Wine Enthusiast magazine they have released their Top 100 Best Buys of 2008. There is a nice handy .pdf file that can be downloaded. The wines are chosen from the more than 11,000 wines that their tasters tested this year. Click here to view the article and then download the .pdf.

Wine Spectator magazine has released their annual top 100 wines list. You can get a .pdf of the list, here. Wine Spectator says they rated the wines based on five criteria: score of 90 or greater, quality, value, availability, and excitement. Drumroll, please... The highest rated wine on the Wine Spectator list is Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta Colchagua Valley 2005. On December 1st they will release the full charts for the top 100 wines. For more information, visit their site, here. Unfortunately, the highest on the list that I've tasted is number 51. Time to go to shopping.