EDITOR'S NOTE—the boom in the bust
Some people are comparing the current economic crisis to the 1930s, but for wine and spirits drinkers, there aren't many parallels. Until Repeal in 1933, if our forebears wanted a glass of wine, they made it from zin and petite in their basement. Or they headed to church for a communion wafer and a chalice.
Today, wine is flowing through the recession, part of the culture as it never was 80 years ago. The California wine industry, which grew three-fold in the past two decades, held even in 2008 (based on revenue figures reported by the California wine institute). Imports from countries such as Portugal, Argentina and Chilewhere good wine can be had for cheaphave been sparked by the times. This is our issue to feed your craving for good wineeven great wineat a good price.
As critics, we have some of those cravings ourselves. One evening on my way home from work, I was drinking a Guinness with oysters on ice and chatting with Liam Whyte, my friend at Tracks Bar in Penn Station. Send me some wines I should taste for the bar, he asked, then went off to fill another pint. Whatever synapse charged with the Loire in my brain began to wiggle, or was it the oyster it splashed with a memory of Domaine de Pepire? I wondered what Tracks would be like if they offered a cru Muscadet by the glass. So I asked our team of critics to come up with their own fantasy lists for their favorite BYO haunts (page 44).
We also grilled restaurateurs about value in wine: Jeremy Ensey of Becco spoke with Wolfgang Weber about Southern Italy. Seamus Mullen and Roger Kugler of Boqueria talked pata negra ham and Fino with Tara Q. Thomas. And Aldo Sohm of Le Bernardin sold me on malbec...with fish. Meanwhile, we reviewed our tasting results over the last year and selected 100 Top Values priced $15 or less, and the 45 Value Brandseach with a range of great buys for $18 or less.
As you prepare to invest in your $10, $15 or $18 wine for the summer, you may well find it here.
Back in the early 1930s, anyone who wanted a drink could still bask in speakeasy cocktail culture, the afterglow of an early 20th century boom.
Today, cocktails are on the rise, the $12 drink the latest affordable luxury. A new generation of wine writers are also spirits writers: Witness Chris Hallowell, an editor here at W&S fascinated by the resurgence of vermouth. Perhaps it's the prices on some of these complex aromatized wines that have brought them back into vogue. It's also what they do when they meet the right gin, vodka or whiskey (page 52).
For some of us, cocktails have never been out of fashion. Take Michael Kinney, our Associate Publisher, for whom a single Martini at every cocktail hour can be credited with maintaining his spirits and good cheer through 25 years in the salt mines at Wine & Spirits, an anniversary he celebrates with this issue. Please join us in toasting Michael with a Kinney Martini: Bombay Gin on ice with a splash of Gallo vermouth, shaken and served with a twist.
