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wine's worldWine's World6NA=1154&NC=1245&DI=4098&PS=58340&PI=7315winesworldfalsefalsespacernotembeddedwine's worldLet Them Drink Yellow TailMike SteinbergerFrench winemakers court international cheapskates.noLet Them Drink Yellow TailIf you like Yellow Tail, you'll love these cheap French wines.noWho says the French don't fight back? For the last few years, much of the French wine industry has been mired in crisis, with thousands of small vintners pushed to the edge of bankruptcy by declining sales at home and increasingly robust competition abroad. The emergence of popular New World brands, such as Australia's phenomenally successful Yellow Tail, has particularly unnerved the French and prompted sober reflection. Hoping to recover some of the lost ground, several French companies are now rolling out new wines meant to appeal to budget-conscious foreign consumers. "We have to simplify our product and reject an arrogant approach that was perhaps natural to us," Pascal Renaudat, the president of the company behind Chamarré, one of the new wines, told the Guardian earlier this year.truenotochyperlinkno2006101112932PMWednesdayOctOctober1310/11/2006 5:29:32 PM6329617017200000002006101112932PMWednesdayOctOctober1310/11/2006 5:29:32 PM632961701720000000wine's worldA Loaf of Bread, a Box of Wine?Mike SteinbergerGood wine in strange containers.noA Loaf of Bread, a Box of Wine?Can good wine come in a box?noNothing grates on casual wine drinkers quite like wine snobbery. There is, however, one form of wine snootiness that has long been not just accepted but encouraged: disdain for jug and box wines. Newcomers to oenophilia quickly learn that it is not enough merely to eschew wines like Almaden Mountain chablis and Inglenook white zinfandel—you must trumpet your contempt for them. Suddenly, though, this once-surefire way of exhibiting discriminating taste is no longer such a gimme. That's because something new has arrived at the wine shop: jug and box wines that are actually pleasant to drink.truenotochyperlinkno20068165957AMTuesdayAugAugust68/1/2006 10:59:57 AM63290012397000000020068165957AMTuesdayAugAugust68/1/2006 10:59:57 AM632900123970000000wine's worldThe Cristal BoycottMike SteinbergerWhich champagne should Jay-Z drink next?noThe Cristal BoycottWhich champagne should Jay-Z drink next?noSo, Jay-Z really meant it: He's done getting pissy-pissy with the Cris'. The rap mogul announced last week that he would be boycotting Cristal champagne in response to what he described as "racist" comments by an executive with Louis Roederer, the company that produces the high-priced bubbly. In an article published in the Economist's Intelligent Life magazine, Frédéric Rouzard, Roederer's managing director, indicated a certain ambivalence about the cachet that Cristal has acquired among Jay-Z and his cohort. Asked whether hip-hop artists' fondness for the champagne might be hurting the Cristal brand, Rouzard was fatally candid: "That's a good question, but what can we do? We can't forbid people from buying it."truenotochyperlinkno200662221558PMThursdayJunJune146/22/2006 6:15:58 PM632865825580000000200662221558PMThursdayJunJune146/22/2006 6:15:58 PM632865825580000000wine's worldThe Judgment of ParisMike SteinbergerWhat the French didn't learn from the legendary wine-tasting.noThe Judgment of ParisThe Judgment of Paris.noToday is the 30th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, the legendary tasting in which a pair of unheralded California wines bested some of France's most celebrated reds and whites. It was, you might say, the collective slurp heard round the world. France losing to the United States at wine? Unthinkable. In a century filled with indignities for France, the Judgment of Paris was another cruel blow. For the most part, though, the French refused to take the result seriously, dismissing it as either an aberration or, worse, the product of Anglo-American chicanery (the tasting was organized by a Brit, Steven Spurrier, who was accused of serving French wines that were either too young or from inferior vintages). The central lesson of the tasting—that competition was now at hand and that French wines would no longer necessarily enjoy a presumption of superiority—was lost on the French. Thirty years later, some of them are paying dearly for their complacency.truenotochyperlinkno200652430529PMWednesdayMayMay155/24/2006 7:05:29 PM632840799290000000200652430529PMWednesdayMayMay155/24/2006 7:05:29 PM632840799290000000wine's worldThe Sad Plight of Cabernet FrancMike SteinbergerAn underrated grape.noThe Sad Plight of Cabernet FrancThe sad plight of cabernet franc.noSome wine grapes command too much respect; others don't command nearly enough. Take cabernet franc. It is the primary ingredient in what many regard as Bordeaux's finest wine, Cheval Blanc, and is a 50-50 partner, with merlot, in two other Bordeaux grandees, Ausone and Lafleur. It produces interesting, distinctive wines in places besides Bordeaux; one of Napa Valley's most coveted wines, the Dalla Valle Maya, is a roughly equal blend of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. But the sun never seems to shine on cabernet franc—consumers shun it; the critics barely acknowledge it. The injustice must end.truenotochyperlinkno200651911856PMFridayMayMay135/19/2006 5:18:56 PM632836415360000000200651911856PMFridayMayMay135/19/2006 5:18:56 PM632836415360000000200311442714PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:14 PM6317815843400000002005830103953AMTuesdayAugAugust108/30/2005 2:39:53 PM632609951930000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM631390436830000000200181561622PMWednesdayAugAugust188/15/2001 10:16:22 PM631334961820000000