Best-Worst Wine of the Week plus Obama saves Wine Industry

Yet another Friday and yet another edition of what wine you should avoid and what you might like.....if you like the same kinds of wines that I do.....

Plus, you'll be interested to read further down about how President Elect Obama not only saved 155 people yesterday from plane crash peril but now he also is saving the wine industry. I think you'll enjoy it.

So, if you haven't tuned in before for my weekly wine picks and uh anti-picks this is how it works. I drink a lot of wine so I thought it might be fun to do a weekly best and worst wine. I mean lots of people do wine suggestions of wine they like but wouldn't you also wanna know which ones not to bother with as well? I also archive my past Friday Wine posts over there on the right hand side in case you wanna check it out.

Here goes...........

Best Wine I had the week: MacMurray Ranch Russian River Pinot Noir 2005

How Much $32.99

Where I drank it: At home

Thoughts: Last night I pulled a bottle of Drouhin Santenay and this bottle of MacMurray Ranch Pinot from the cellar as we put away Christmas decorations. I always enjoy the Old world, New world comparison and I love Burgundy so I thought it would be fun. The Drouhin was nice but the MacMurray really blew me away. Of course completely different styles of Pinot Noir but anyway the MacMurray was typical Russian River with the combination of red and black fruits, the hint of oak and spice and really very savory, rich and pretty dark for Pinot Noir. It was a little earthy but not too much and the spice was clove I think. This is Pinot Noir American style.

The Keith Olbermann Wine (worst wine of the week): Trinchero Main Street Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005.

How much: $54 a bottle

Where: Barley's Brewhaus in OP.

Thoughts: They have a good wood fired steak there that is pretty tasty and I wanted a big, rich cab to go with it. I should have known better than to buy Trinchero which is the family name of the people who make Sutter Home. Look, it wasn't swill but it was far from stellar either. It had some mint flavors that I used to like in Cab but don't need anymore. If it were half the price I'd say it wasn't too bad. I just think it is overpriced for what it is and in this economy........you have to do more with less.

And this little nugget on how Obama is going to save the wine industry......

Wine industry excited by Obama
January 15, 2009

Source: Howard G Goldberg in New York

Barack Obama will have a 'felicitous' effect on Americans' wine habits, a top research organisation's president says.
Obama takes office as president on Tuesday 'after eight years of no wine drinkers' in a White House occupied by George W Bush, 'who stopped drinking a decade ago,' as John Gillespie put it.
Gillespie heads the Wine Market Council, a Napa Valley-based trade research association. He was speaking in New York at the 2009 Wine Market Council Research Conference.
The nation's wine industry is tantalized by reports saying Obama's home in Chicago has a 1,000-bottle wine cellar.
'What is not known is what the contents of that cellar are - assuming there are contents,' New York magazine said.
A rival publisher at Gillespie's seminar said Obama's staff promised to divulge details after the inauguration.
Obama's influence among young Americans excites the wine industry.
The basis of 'stunning growth in the core wine-drinking population' in the last eight years has been increased consumption by the demographic groups called millennials (up to 32 years old) and, to a smaller degree, Generation X (33 to 44), Gillespie said.
'In 2009, the oldest millennial will turn 32, but there are still 23m of the 70m millennials who have not yet reached the age of 21,' he said.
In the same way that Obama exploits the Internet to advance his agenda, millennials and Generation X members are more likely than other generations 'to be seeing information on wine using the Internet,' Gillespie said.
As for the potential effects of the economic downturn, Gillespie observed that 'we have enjoyed steady, if modest, gains in adult per capita consumption of table wine through the last two recession periods of 1990 to 1991 and 2001 to 2003.'