11/30/05 Annual buying guide

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran. I have been looking at one of the premier wine magazines, Annual Buying Guide, and it is interesting. Today I want to share some of my observations and recommendations. Well one of the things that I am always interested in is when a wine publication releases its top wine picks for the year and the Wine & Spirits Winter 2005 Annual Buying Guide is an issue that I haved looked forward to. This year I was very impressed by how many of my personal wine favorites were there. I was also proud of how many of the wineries from Washington state were included on this list. I did try to do a little shopping only to find that many of the wines tasted were no longer available for sale. So much for the "Buying Guide" part of the magazine. But I will say that it gives a great foundation to develop a list of wineries well worth collecting. Many of the wineries have other vintages available and are a great investment for the future. It is also a great way to go shopping for the wine lover on your gift list. There is great information about the winery that you can copy or cut out and attach to a gift bottle. There is information about where to get a personalized wine opener and fabulous wine glasses. The book reviews are, short and sweet, any one of them would make a lovely gift. And you've gotta love the list in the back of the 100 best values wines of the year. This is where we send the guy on a mission to find great wine under or at $10. That is of course if he is only interested in white wine. My advice pick up a copy if you can still find one and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.