Yon Bard’s post, in which he made some comments on the price of a bottle of wine made me add the following little explanation for readers on both sides of the ocean.
My husband and I regularly buy (though we might not do so any longer
) German wines
in both the US and Germany. (Please, do not disdain us. Enjoying wine to a
certain extent and definitely not in excess quantities is part of regular
life in Europe. For Europeans, people drink a lot less here. I am in no
way speaking evil of people on either side of the ocean but there are
cultural differences and people should be aware of these differences. ) A
wine that costs 2-3 DEM in Germany costs around 5-7 USD (like an average
wine) in the US and a 7-9 DEM wine is accordingly more expensive. The wine
is exactly the same in the US and in Germany, it is just more expensive in
the US due to the export. If you are still dare enough to look for German
wines in the US after reading Mr. Bischof’s essay, buy those that have
something like “Qualita:ts Wein mit Pra:dikat” on the label. (The “:”s are
flying accents above the a’s. I apologize if I did not get the German 100%
correct, but my German is worse than my English and we only have
Australian wines at home right now and could not check the label. ) It is
not guaranteed that all wines with this sentence on the label are good.
But those without it are definitely not good.
The law that regulates the sale of alcohol in the US is different state by state. We live in Pennsylvania, so my comments below are related to the state of PA only.
Wines are sold in specific “Wine and Spirits” stores only. (For European readers: beers are sold separately in “Beer” stores only. No other stores besides bars and restaurant are allowed to sell alcohol.) Wines sold in these stores must have sufficient quantity to supply all wine stores. Say it differently, every store sells the same wine if the store is supplied by the state – and all but one wine store here in Pittsburgh are such stores. However, this also means that fine German wines e.g. the “ice-wines” that Mr. Bischof talked about in his essay, will simply never get to the selves of a regular US wine store because there is not enough of them.
Best regards,
C.K.