Wine for everyday drinking

The title may mean something different to you, dear reader, depending on your income level and your perceived level of sophistication but - and please don't take this the wrong way - forget about that shit. Wine is either worth drinking on a day-to-day basis or not, cost notwithstanding, so please do not be silly or pretentious.

Dear reader, I have been involved in wine for the best part of 35 years, having tasted most of the best wines that this world has to offer; I am not, however, a wine snob. Yes, there are wines that are exceptionally wonderful but, like complex, fine food,  are challenging and can be difficult to drink - first growth claret is, indeed, a good example, more approach with care than quaff away happily. There is a time and a place for everything and it is not a testament of your sophistication; rather, the ability to relax, taste and drink a variety of wines is.

Modern technology means that there is an awful lot of decent, gluggable wine in the world. True, this may not be award-winning stuff in any set way, but it is award-winning wine in the sense that you want it - and can afford to have it - on a regular basis. Wine for day-to-day consumption
does not need to win gold medals in contests, it needs to be good enough to drink - and enjoy - on a regular basis, with everyday food. It does not, DOES NOT, need to be expensive or poncey.

Forget labels and get tasting, dear reader, taste, taste, TASTE! There is no other way to understand and appreciate wine, or food for that matter. If you want an interesting life do not play it safe but explore, taste, reject, approve, grow to appreciate, love. The ancient Greeks had a god - Dionysos - whose whole raison d'être was to do with wine appreciation and enjoyment, however excessive, and what a good chap he was - in my estimation at least, because, if you remember, dear reader, I am a friend of Dionysos! Wine and food, that heavenly pairing (cola and food shows to me, at least occasionally, there must be a hell!) is there to make your life more interesting. And yes, even house wine is acceptable, provided it's good.

So be demanding : If your neighbourhood restaurant fails on house wine, tell them, show them how they are letting you down, ask them to do better, even suggest how. One of my favourite restaurants in the universe, the very simple, wonderful in its way Kossi's on Andros, Greece, listened to their clients' feedback and changed their house red wine, greatly improving things. After many, MANY litres of their house red I can tell - no, guarantee - that it is decent, clean, enjoyable and worth drinking. Sure, there are better options in the wine universe - a cru bourgeois at ten times the price springs to mind, but why bother, when something like this fits the bill (no pun intended...) nicely, quantity notwithstanding.

So don't drink shitty wine, irrespective of the price; demand decent quality. Simple wine can be clean and gluggable, it just won't be complex and alluring. Its role is not to be the star but a supporting actor, and this it should do well. If it does not, don't take it lying down - help improve the stuff - and remember, life is too short to drink bad wine. So seek out the decent stuff, avoid the crap stuff and enjoy.