Welcome back, gang. I hope that your summer was as good as ours. We did a week in Lake Tahoe with 17 of Ellen’s family members (including three kids and two teenagers) under one roof. I know, it sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it was great fun. We all had a great time because they’re great folks. Then we just got back from a Labor Day weekend wedding in Sea Island, Georgia. If you’ve never been there, you owe it to yourself. A truly beautiful part of these United States.
But getting back to while you were away. While you were away, the recession did some good for you all in the world of wine prices. Did you catch that “you all”? I guess I was in Georgia too long. Anyway, there’s now a glut of wine from all over the world, and a lot of winemakers and importers are dropping their prices in order to get the older vintages moving and making way for the newer ones. And that especially goes for the higher-end stuff, like the bubbles from Champagne. Yes, indeed, the Champagne guys are finally forced to take a big gulp and swallow their pride. This bodes very well for your holiday celebrations.
And the selection of excellent, very affordable everyday wines continues to expand, as distributors are finally waking up to to fact that wines well under $20 is the way to go for their survival. So the time has never been better for everyone to shop for bargains from places you never thought would have bargains, like Burgundy, Bordeaux, Tuscany, as well as those places that always were bargains. Get thee to your favorite wine merchant and check out what’s new and exciting since you’ve been gone.
It’s good to have you back. We missed you.
