Food & Drink: A Watch on the Wine

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The bulk of California production still goes into the sweet dessert wines such as port, sherry and muscatel, especially the cheap versions known as "Sneaky Pete" consumed by impoverished alcoholics ("Let's not call them winos," says Gallo, who sells a lot of such stuff). But the premium vintners are heartened by the fact that table wine is getting an increasing share of the total market. In 1957, for example, all U.S. vintners shipped 143.3 million gallons, of which 93.6 million were dessert wines and 40.8 million table wines. Last year, as total domestic shipments climbed to 152.5 million gallons, table wines had climbed to 47.4 million while dessert wines dropped to 86.3 million.

Even the fine-wine producers will admit that some of the cheap table wines are sound value for their price. Gallo's Paisano, for example, is a passable vin ordinaire, even by French standards, and so is Petri's Viva Vino. For quality wines, the experts stick to the Napa Valley for reds, Livermore for whites and Sonoma for Rhines. Among the leaders: Louis Martini's Zinfandel and Folle Blanche, Inglenook's Cabernet Sauvignon, Wente Brothers' Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Chardonnay, Charles Krug's Camay and Camay Beaujolais. California's sparkling wines, on the other hand, are rarely worth the nose tickling; U.S. champagne is almost exclusively the province of New York State.

With their growing reputation among connoisseurs, U.S. vintners no longer have to advertise their wares as "Burgundy-type domestic" or a "California Chablis." The day has not yet come when Pinot Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon are as well known as Medoc or Bordeaux. But the best measure of U.S. vintners' growing reputation is that their best wines can now hold their own on any wine list, and under their own names.