[at-l] Waaay off topic---- Inexpensive wine

[Point North]

Be very careful before you buy a cheap bottle of wine.  Unless you know for a FACT that that particular bottle is a quality wine that has been marked down significantly due to market forces, you're asking for a headache.  Most people do not have access to this information -- you can't trust a "marked down ___% off" sticker -- so just "say no" to inexpensive wine.

Another thing I learned from hard experience, is to consider if the wine has been damaged from heat during transportation.  Let's say you live in Georgia, or Texas, or anyplace east of the Mississippi, and it's a California wine.  That means the wine has been shipped by truck or rail across the southwest deserts, IN UNREFRIGERATED CONTAINERS.  That's right, no refrigeration.  The distributors won't ship in refrigerated rail or truck containers because they don't want to pay the extra freight.

So, if it's summer or fall and you buy a bottle of otherwise good California red, you're probably buying a bottle that has been exposed to 100+ degree heat for several days, then placed on a local delivery truck in the heat of summer until it finally ended up on your store shelf.  Temperatures over 70 degrees destroy red wine.  You end up with a bottle of "cooked" wine.  Basically not drinkable.

Again, consider where you live and where the wine comes from.  If you live in Oregon, Washington or California, you are lucky ... you can buy a fresh bottle of California red.  If you live in the eastern half of the U.S. maybe you can get an uncooked bottle in the winter and spring, depending on when it was shipped to your regional distributor.  But if it's summer or fall, stay away. 
 
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