Eat This, Not That

Eat This, Not That is an American media franchise including the eatthis.com website, quarterly magazine, videos, e-books and downloadable pdf's, according to wikipedia.  We are familiar with them from scanning news aggregator websites where they post regularly.  They are kind of like a Consumer Reports for foodies.  

Sugar is definitely a hot button issue for them.  In their 2010 publication, Drink This, Not That, they focus primarily on the heavily sugared drinks Americans love.  We're interested in them today because one of our suppliers sent us the provocative October 19, 2022 article, 6 Wines Made from the Lowest Quality Ingredients.  Frankly, we were shocked, not that adulteration was going one - that's an open secret - but rather that someone had the guts to out the crooks. 

(Because there are no laws preventing adulteration of wines sold to a public and we shouldn't have to think of such a thing anyway; the term "crooks" isn't meant literally.)

90+ percent of the American wine business is controlled by the thirty largest companies in the world and they are overwhelmingly American.  To say they are powerful in this industry is to understate things just a tad.  They are the domestic wine industry.  They control the chain store wine business.  So why poke the bear?

Back in 2015 Constellation Brands, the second largest wine company in the world, purchased the Meiomi label from Joe Wagner of Caymus Vineyards fame.  Constellation is the well known long time owner of Mega Purple grape concentrate, since sold to Vie-Del.  Tintura grape concentrates have been around a long time and go by many different brand names.  Mega Purple is just the best known brand.

According to the Eat This, Not That article, Meiomi is the number one wine made with the lowest quality ingredients because of the use of the grape concentrate.  That's where they stop.  After all, they are a food magazine.  If a wine-writing muckraker had done the expose, they would have gone further.

Sandhi Central Coast Chardonnay

Our last post was almost three month ago, making that interval the longest dry spell we've had since we started this thing 543 posts ago.  We've tried to post in that interval, by the way.  Just last month we thought we had a good one about Bonny Doone wines but when we sat down to do it, it just wouldn't come.  What could the problem be?  It's just a silly blog.

So, we're going to overcome this writer's block thing slowly, with baby steps.

If you go to sandhiwines.com or to their marketer, skurnik.com, you will be greeted by an exceptional and classy professional presence.  Contrast this approach with the mass marketers who try to mask what they are doing with their transparently fictious, romanticized winery backstories.  Those stories can leave you cringing from their patent obfuscation.  They obviously don't want you to know anything about their product.  Sandhi (and Skurnik) want you to know what makes what they are doing better than others.  Their winemaking intentions in particular are absolutely noble compared to those who merely intend to turn out a commodity.  They also believe in passing along the kind of critical product information so lacking at other sites.

The Sandhi wine we have in the store currently is the Central Coast Chardonnay.  While the Sandhi/Skurnik websites assert their fine wine bonafides, this particular wine is not mentioned.  The Central Coast Chard is an entry level effort that gets eclipsed at the website by their estate wines.  So how do we know it's good?  We have it on good faith from an Atlanta sommeliere.  A real sommeliere.  That alone should tell us this one is food friendly.