Does Mass-Produced = Swill?

After reading my "Hot Fizz" post, one guy commented that he won't be drinking any "mass-produced swill" like Korbel with his Thanksgiving dinner, and will instead be serving a French Champagne that sells for 50 bucks a bottle. Nice for him, but I wonder: Had Thurston ever tried Korbel's pink sparkler before dismissing it?

I too am a fan of limited-production, hand-crafted wines made by independent producers, but that's not to say that I'm ruling out everything else. After years of attending wine events, tasting through wine samples and visiting countless wineries, I've learned never to say never: Just when you start thinking all mass-produced wine is crap, one of them is bound to sneak up and surprise you. On the flip side, I've tasted rivers of "boutique" wines--priced anywhere from $30 a bottle to over $100--that I wouldn't buy for a quarter of their suggested retail prices. I've never been a big Korbel fan, but their pink sparkler is an exception. I challenge you to find a better pink bubbly in the U.S. for 10 bucks.

We'd all love to drink Sea Smoke Pinot on a daily basis and brine our Thanksgiving turkeys in Krug Champagne, but that's just not realistic for most people--whether for economic reasons or logistical ones. Sometimes you forget to bring a bottle from your personal stash, and the grocery store is the only wine seller on the way to wherever you're going; sometimes you're in a strange town and the only place that sells wine is a double-wide trailer a mile from your in-laws house (true story); sometimes you're at an outdoor concert with limited beverage options.

When confronted with such realities, it's nice to have go-to wines that you can count on to quench your thirst for wine without offending your taste buds. The non-small producers that I've found to be consistently good include J. Lohr (still family-owned, by the way), Sebastiani (ditto) and Geyser Peak (the Sauv. Blanc in particular). I've made do with much less--even on Thanksgiving. (When I'm at my dad's house in Michigan I've even been known to drink Carlo Rossi jug wine because that's what's in the house. Hasn't killed me yet.)

Anyone else out there want to share the names of their go-to "big brand" wines?

Comments

[Jeff]

Good post, Tina. Down with the elitists, I say.

I have found that Columbia and Don & Sons always perform admirably for me. The Pepperwood Grove, at around $6.99, is usually very, very accetable wine regardless of varietal.

Jeff
www.goodgrape.com

[Erin]

Sometimes I hate myself a little bit for admitting this, but I've always enjoyed Bogle Petite Sirah.

And although you can't find them in all grocery stores, for me Castle Rock wines always hit the spot.

[richard]

Okay, wine broad, here we go. First of all, yes, I have tried all the Korbel offerings, and they are passable, but Heck Estates has questionable business practices. As do other technically "family-owned" wineries such as Gallo and Sebastiani. Are these "family" wineries? Technically yes, but their winemaking is as souless as Constellation or Brown-Forman. Another thing, there are plenty of small, truly independent producers who create loads of enjoyable, everyday wines. "Reds" by Laurel Glen, "Lois" Gruner Veltliner by Loimer, any affordable Rhone wine by the Perrin family, Selbach-Oster's Fish Label from Germany, I could go on and on. Do the corporations make quality wine? Of course, since they have the resources and usually a lot of quality vineyard holdings. Are there over-priced "boutique" producers that taste out of whack? Certainly, but I would rather support the independent businesses who do it out of passion, and not because of the creditor's bottom line. And another thing, I don't want to drink Sea Smoke, since I prefer Pinot Noir to resemble Pinot Noir and to have elegance and acidity, rather than Parker points. Your turn, wine broad.

[Galen Struwe]

Your choice of J Lohr is close to my heart. They make very good wines. I always enjoy them without the kind of guilty pleasure that overcomes me when Abba's SOS comes on the radio or certain Gilmore Girls reruns are on tv. Fortunately, good wines are always without guilt.
Galen

[winebroad]

Hey Richard,

It's one thing to say you don't want to drink any mass-produced wines, and another to say you don't want to drink any wine produced by jerks who engage in questionable business practices. If you're avoiding Korbel, etc. for the the latter reason, then more power to you. I go out of my way not to drink wines made by people I know to be jerks--regardless of the amount of wine they're producing.

[Blind Muscat]

At the risk of what's left of my reputation, I'd put in a vote for Beringer as the label to look for in a wineless emergency in that out-of-town grocery store. Several good-value whites, reliable reda, and--dare I say it?--a truly tasty Ssparkling White ZInfandel. I have served this particular wine to several rounds of high-tone friends, and it has always put everyone in a thoroughly festive mood, which continued even when I told them what they were drinking.

Now as to Richard's mini-rant, another angle on this comes to mind. One thing mass-produced wines do is . . . get drunk by the masses. Which is a good thing, if we want this strange, neo-Prohibitionist culture to embrace wine. I, too, conduct my own personal boycott of known jerks (mostly, of course, I have no idea of the jerk quotient behind a label), but tire easily when reading denunciations of the vast majority of publicly available wine for some alleged soullessness, whatever that is.

[richard]

You're correct, Blind Muscat. Who am I to rant against the masses' choices and call them souless? I should be defending the Foster's Corporation-owned-Beringer, because none of us deserve the right to criticize products aimed at the lowest common denominator. I should also defend Budweiser as a fine example of complex beer, or MacDonald's and Appleby's because, gosh darnit, they're affordable and available to all. How about the music of Britney Spears, and the writing's of Danielle Steele.
The truth about the "masses" is that they're not very discerning. Shame on me for being that way, and I won't bother this blog again. So let's all raise a glass of Two-Buck Chuck, produced by a convicted criminal who tries to mis-inform the public thru false labeling. But hey, it's cheap!! Cheers!

[Cheerful Iconoclast]

With moderately priced wines, I've had good results with Australian wines like Lindemans. It's not the best wine ever, but I have yet to have a truly undrinkable offering from them. It is I also may main cooking wine.

In addition, I get some sub-$20 wines from Hanna, which is a smallish California winery. They make consistently good products at the higher end, and their lower-end wines taste pretty darn good.

[Randy]

Wow, Richard has no idea what a dialogue is about.

Anyhow, I will say that even brands by Constellation are being run by real people who work hard at what they do. I would hardly call that soulless. Now, has practices at wineries like Mondavi departed from their family-owned ways? Yes, I've personally heard a representative from Icon Estates say that they've brought things like filtration into practice at Mondavi in order to bring more consistency into the winery.

Now, consistency is not the same as quality, I will admit, but consistency is not a bad thing by itself. It's when you're consistently mediocre that you have to watch out.

Now, that rant aside, I too have a thing with Heck and Korbel (but that's another matter), I tend to drink what tastes good, and don't bother myself too much with whether there is a conglomerate behind it. So yeah, if Korbel makes a wicked cool brut rose, I might just have to try and find out for myself. Ya think?

[rob]

La Crema is a pretty consistent wine that I can enjoy, and it's a Jess Jackson brand. I'm all for the small, independent family farm garagistes, but sometimes you're just thirsty and in a Safeway.

[rob]

La Crema is a pretty consistent wine that I can enjoy, and it's a Jess Jackson brand. I'm all for the small, independent family farm garagistes, but sometimes you're just thirsty and in a Safeway.