Summer, 2005 - Characterized by extremes of flood and fire, 2005 may well be the best vintage for European wines.
With the exception of Italy - which suffered indirectly from the above mentioned floods, 2005 vintage wines throughout Europe - from France to Portugal - are the best in memory.
As a result, even though the dollar is weak against the Euro, now is an excellent time to buy European wines.
The primary wine producing countries of Europe produce more than five times as much wine as the United States. Because of the history and economics of European wine production, there are even more winemakers, wineries and vineyards - so keeping track of them all, to say nothing of reading the labels on the bottles and figuring out what to buy is difficult if not impossible for most Americans.
Adding insult to injury, because European wines are categorized by region rather than grape variety, the bottle and the wine store doesn't even tell you what kind of wine it is. Bordeaux can be primarily cabernet sauvignon or merlot ( with a little cab franc, petit verdot and malbec thrown in ). Rhone wines are predominantly syrah but may also include any of 22 varietals the French government recognizes. Both Barolo and Barbaresco are made from nebiolo and Rioja is usually tempranillo. But who knows?
Here at Food,Wine, Life's Pleasures we may be only a little more informed, but not much.
But we know this. Because the 2005 vintage (except in Italy) was so good, you just about can't miss. So go out and buy some. We have tasted a bunch for under $20 and they almost without exception have been exceptional values, rich in fruit and character. Try em , you'll like em.
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