Shocking!

I was in the heart of the wine business during my employ at Seagram, then the largest North American importer of Bordeaux in the 1980s, in a unit run by an Iraqi Jew called Abdalla Simon, who was universally revered in the trade. I learned a lot and quaffed some of the greatest fermented grape juice produced on Earth. Such were the times, our focus was on France and California, Spain, Germany and Italy were considered novelty items. We knew still other nations produced wines but this was never mentioned in polite company for fear of being considered insane. There were and are surprises. Russia makes more wine than Austria, Brazil, New Zealand, Hungary and China - and Italy, the world’s largest producer, makes enough wine every year to fill 1,999 Olympic swimming pools. At Seagram, I never encountered a wine snob, consumers we called “hobbyists”, the term applied to wealthy dentists who live in North Jersey. I was however armed with a secret trick to out-smart such a person, as I now reveal.