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I’ve just returned from Chile, where I spent eight wonderful days tasting and judging wines made there, visiting wineries and vineyards, touring the Andes and the coast, and speaking about Chilean wines and their future. The Chilean wine makers were interested in the U.S. market, where their wines are already doing well, and how better to get North Americans to drink their wines.

Now, there are two schools of thought here, at odds with one another. One says to do a lot of market research and find out what wines are selling well, and make wines that copy the taste of those wines. The second is to do what you do best, and bring it to the wine drinkers. Create a market for those wines, boasting of their uniqueness and their quality. This is the way that I would do it, and that’s what I championed in the discussions and panels I participated in.

The Chileans have been making remarkable Sauvignon Blanc for years: affordable, brightly flavored, citrusy, crisp in acidity, cleanly flavored and made without oak. The wine which we chose as Best in Show was just such a wine, and it beat out almost 250 other wines to win that title. It was too bad that many, if not most, of the Chardonnays that we tasted were not made in the same way. When I asked why so many of the Chardonnays were so heavily oaked, highly extracted with heavy flavors and high in alcohol, I was told that it was because “Americans like big, oaky Chardonnay.” All nine of us on the panel of judges, who each have at least 20 years experience as wine professionals, disagreed.

Now, when you have nine experts in any field, let alone something as driven by personal taste as wine, all agreeing on something, there must be a very good reason why... and there is.

We Americans, or at least we wine drinking Americans, are eating differently than we did only a few years ago. We eat lighter foods, spicier foods, more ethnically mixed foods than ever before, and the wines that go with these foods are lighter, spicier, crisper and lower in alcohol than were the wines we drank a few years ago. The taste of oak simply gets in the way of the flavors of the wine. Besides, if oak is such a desirable flavor, why don’t Chefs use it as a flavoring in their dishes?

Sauvignon Blanc, known as the “ace up the sleeve” to Sommeliers for its ability to compliment so many dishes, has taken off. New World Sauvignon, especially, with its crisp acidity, lush aromas of grapefruit. Gooseberry and lime leaves, have made stars of wine makers from New Zealand, South Africa and, yes, Chile. Do you want a wine to drink with seafood? Shellfish? Sushi or Sashimi? A vegetarian dish... or a simple roasted chicken? New World Sauvignon Blanc fits the bill.

Dry Rieslings are amazingly delicious as well as versatile wines, and it is a fact that whenever Chefs, Sommeliers and wine professionals get together for dinner, we always seem to start with a bottle (or two!) of dry Riesling. I’m afraid that many wine drinkers of my generation have been discouraged from trying Riesling because of all the cheap, sweet Riesling that we drank back in college. Fortunately for the younger wine drinkers, there is a great amount of dry and slightly off dry Riesling on the market that is an absolute delight to drink as an aperitif or with dinner. This is a wine that, again, goes with the kinds of foods that we are all eating today. Thai dishes call out for Riesling!

Dry Rosé wines are quaffed by the carafe in countries all around the Mediterranean, from Spain to France, to Italy and Greece. Americans have recently discovered the pleasures of a cold, dry Rosé, aromatic with hints of strawberries, with a simple sandwich or cold snacks. There are plenty of times when an impromptu meal of roasted chicken from the deli along with cheese, crusty bread and a salad has been made into a memorable event because of the Rosé we drank with it. It may surprise you to know that the “hot” wine this summer in the A-list clubs in Manhattan and the Hamptons was a French Rosé, Domaines Ott! Rosés like this aren’t only “summer wines”, though: they are delicious throughout the year and are a perfect bridge when you want something a bit more than a white wine, but not as big as a red. No wine lovers refrigerator should be without a bottle of Rosé... right next to the bubbly!

Sparkling wines are not only for celebrating, and there is more to “fizz” that just Champagne! We have discovered the pleasure of sipping a fresh Prosecco with a late, last Sunday breakfast, and the way it tastes so good as a Bellini, with a splash of peach nectar added, or as a Mimosa, made with fresh orange juice. Bright, lively Clairette, dry on the palate but loaded with ripe fruit on the nose, is so affordable and easily enjoyed that it has become a perfect choice to pop open whenever company drops by. These lively tasting bubblies are wonderful “food wines” that you can pour and enjoy with so many lighter dishes.

There are still wine writers and well known critics who still give big numbers to the massive, highly extracted wines: those overly oaked fruit bombs with 15% and 16% alcohol... but what do you, what can you, eat with them? Wine has become an accepted part of our lives, and drinking wine with dinner is the way that we enjoy our wine, not by sitting around and talking about it. Wines that fit this way of life are the ones that we drink, and wines that match the styles of foods that we eat are the natural choices. The wine makers who realize this are the ones with a future in the U.S. markets.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper