• A new direction for White House wine? Mike Steinberger at Slate takes the Bushes to task for serving uninteresting and too expensive wine, which was good to see. But Steinberger – like too many wine writers – is hung up on serving California wine when we have other options. How he can suggest that the White House serve Chinese wine without mentioning the quality wine available in the rest of the U.S? And doesn’t Steinberger realize, in suggesting that Obama serve the 1996 Château Montelena (certainly a nice wine) that most of us consider $100 a lot of money to pay for a bottle?
• Restaurants don’t know how to sell wine: This is not a surprise to the Wine Curmudgeon, but a new survey has found that most people think restaurant bottle prices are too high and that wine service is lousy. The study, by Women & Wine, found that 70 percent of wine drinkers 29 to 44 thought restaurants overcharged for a bottle and just 17 percent said the server actually listed the name of the wines by the glass or offered assistance on wine selection. What’s even more interesting about this study is that most restaurants say this age group is the focus for their wine efforts. And that’s the best they can do?
• We’re drinking more wine: U.S. wine consumption increased in 2008, despite the recession, say figures from the Wine Market Council trade group. It was up 1.5 percent,down from original estimates, but not bad. A couple of other points: 16 percent of us drink 91 percent of the wine in the U.S., and those of us who fit in that group drink more wine at home, buy mostly wine that costs between $6 and $20, drink red and white evenly, prefer domestic over imports two to one. Coming Friday: My take on what will happen to wine consumption and wine prices in 2009.
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