Wine & Spirits

As an employee of a wine shop (and general wine geeek), I read many publications to do with wine and spirits. That said, I find that issue after issue, Wine and Spirits is far the best and most useful of those magazines.

While Wine Spectator is certainly the biggest and most recognized wine publication, I find it to be unbearably snooty. Most of the wines reviewed have a pricetag well over what I want to pay (there is a 'best value' section, but it generally consists of 12 or so wines). Similarly, there are too many articles about 'to die for' $500-a-plate resteraunts and how to construct and exravegant wine cellar to maintain the interests of the everyday person (including myself and my customers).

Check that against Wine and Spirits. Most articles here are geared towards the every-person. The latest issue alone, for example, included articles on wine and barbecuing, the 50 most reliable wineries and a ten pages listing of the best values unkder $15 (most under $10).

This is not to say that Wine Spectator does not release articles with cover stories on the best values under $15, or covering the great screwcap debate; they do. But unlike Wine and Spirits, who seem perfectly at home doing articles like this issue after issue, Wine Spectator rarely does them and when they do, the articles come off as forced.

The only real con of Wine and Spirits is that ione only gets 8 issues per year, and as another reviewer notes, those issues are thinner than those of its snooty, yet monthly, counterpart. Still, this mag is a great investment for a useful counterpoint to the highfalutin approach of the Wine Spectator.

Although this magazine has excellent reviews of wines (the sections on "value" wines is outstanding), it falls short of some areas of "Wine Spectator". However, it is a smaller format and easier to carry around, read on a plane or have on your living room table. Worth considering and sampling a couple issues. I had originally given this four stars, but since it is such a good value for affordable (i.e., everyday) wines, I give it five stars.