Americans are the new french

[Johnny Karlsson]

Can some one send me one of these swanky bottles of expensive wine? All white wines taste the same to me and all red wines taste the same to me. Maybe I've been given crap wine. All I know is I can't tell the difference.

This is exactly how I looked at it all my life, much preferring beer and whiskey over wine.

Then about 7-8 years ago, went on a wine tasting trip up in the Los Olivos / Santa Ynez area with my wife and some friends. It was like oooohhh, now I get it....

My favorites are from the Paso Robles area. We try to make the trek there once every year now. Each time, I end up getting 5-6... or 10 bottles in the $20-30 range, but nothing crazy. That lasts me for over a year since I still mainly drink beer or whiskey and save the wines for special events (or for gifts).

If you go on a trip like that and still don't notice any difference - "Two-buck Chuck"* is pretty good (especially for the money).

* Two-buck Chuck = Charles Shaw, $1.99 at Trader Joes

and oh - if you are looking for seriously good wine for very little money, check out some of the stuff coming out of Argentina!

[Olle Sjostrom]

Anything from argentina or chile is top. Wine is generally amazing IMHO.

[Kevin Ward]

While shooting a film in Mobile Alabama, the sound mixer and I asked the local teamster if there was a liquor store where we could pick up a couple bottles of nice wine. He told us that Mobile was dry but he knew a place a couple of towns over. When we arrived 45 minutes later it was a hole in the wall, no name, convenience store. They did have a choice of 2 wines however. One was called "Dagger" and the other was called "Twister".

[mono]