Blind Muscat's Cellarbook

New Year's Wine Resolutions

Blind Muscat already quit smoking, 20 years ago; and he lost about 30 pounds over the last 18 months, so it’s time to make resolutions about other things. Here’s the 2009 Wine Resolution list:

1) Drink Cheaper, Drink Better: This one probably tops every sane wine drinker’s list, given the Depression-grade economic tumult we’re careening into. It means a little extra work, seeking out good values, haunting more wine shops, discovering new and obscure parts of the winemaking world that haven’t reached the point of price inflation. Sounds like fun.

Depression Wine Economics

There’s plenty of depressing news circulating around these days, courtesy of the onrushing Depression. Most of it has nothing to do with wine, though much of it calls for a good stiff drink. But in New York state, the economic collapse is threatening to do some real damage to an up-and-coming state wine industry.

In his most recent weekly e-newsletter, Jim Trezise, executive director of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, an industry advocacy and promotional organization, surveys the three provisions of Gov. David Paterson’s proposed austerity budget that would have a substantial impact on the wine industry. The full text of the newsletter is recommended reading for anyone interested in how the fine print of sausage-like budget documents translates into real-world consequences.

Zaca Mesa Releases

Zaca Mesa has long been one of my favorite California producers. They've  concentrated on Rhone varieties, my weakness, since the 1970s; they have never seemed to be too full of themselves; they’re located in the Santa Ynez Valley part of the Santa Barbara wine country, not in the glare of the North Coast spotlight; and they generally make really nice wine. They’ve gone through a few changes of ownership and ambition, but are now on what seems like to me the right track, focused on estate-grown Rhone reds and whites.

So it was a happy day when the delivery fella brought me samples of three new Zaca releases: one stunner, one that may have seen better vintages, and one that suits an acquired taste—a taste which, fortunately, I have most certainly acquired.