CUTTING DOWN MY DRINKING BY HALF?

 I haven't had much to grumble about recently which, I know, is strange for a curmudgeon.

I've given up buying wines on-line because I'm trying to whittle down our wine stocks so that there will be less to transport when we move - hopefully none.

The supermarket offerings up here are OK but not as extensive as in the bigger stores in Auckland and Wellington and there are no really decent wine shops like Moore Wilson's in Wellington. As a result when I'm buying I stick to the tried and true for both Her Indoors and me.

She likes Champagne and good Methode Champenoise wines as do I and she, when drinking white wine likes Californian chardonnay. Red wine choice for her is American zinfandel or Italian primitivo (essentially the same grape varietal).

My choices are the sparklings like her choices, New Zealand (Hawkes Bay) chardonnay and New Zealand pinot noir. I've just taken again to drinking the odd Australian red (merlot) and I can find some reasonable ones in our supermarkets - not outstanding but they will do.

If I was going to grumble I'd again moan about the zero offerings in half bottles of anything other than a few very ordinary sauvignon blanc and pinot gris. This is an indictment on the wine industry and stockists alike. I've mentioned this before in The Wine Guy posts: HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE ...

... not that I'm being a crank about it you know.

Hopefully, at Moore Wilson's, New World Thorndon, New world Chaffers and a couple of the good wine shops I might be able to find a few choice offerings. I won't be holding my breath though.