Introduction

Character Counts – Wines for Every Day

“Good wine is a necessity of life for me.” The quote is from Thomas Jefferson. Of course the statement isn’t literally true. Mr. Jefferson would not have perished from lack of wine, although his pleasure in life would have been greatly diminished. Wine was something of an obsession for him and his failure (due to phylloxera) to successfully grow fine wine in Virginia was one of the few disappointments in one of the happiest and most successful of lives.

Jefferson was an aristocrat to his fingertips. His leisurely trips to Europe included stops at and purchases of Chateaux Lafite, Haut-Brion and d’Yquem as well as Romanee Conti. While I would love to emulate his purchases and drinking habits, like 99.9% of us I just can’t quite afford those beverages on an everyday basis.

The goal of Hand Picked Selections is to provide consumers with moderately priced wines of flavor and character. I am convinced that America will be a better and happier place as we begin to incorporate wine into our daily lives. Those wines will rarely be Lafite or Romanee-Conti. They won’t be Napa Valley Cabernets, Tete de Cuvee Champagnes, super-Tuscans or garage Saint-Emilions. They can be mass-produced wines from multinational drinks corporations – those are far better than nothing. One of the greatest advances in the history of wine has been the adaptation of modern technology. Most of the world’s vineyards can now produce consistently clean and pleasant wines.

Good as these wines are, there is no reason why we shouldn’t choose to drink, at comparable prices, wines of individuality and character. These are wines from vineyards cultivated by independent growers, harvested, fermented, aged and bottled on their own properties, wines that give you a sense of the place where they were grown. It is those wines that Hand Picked Selections chooses to sell.

The quote that graces the back labels of Hand Picked Selections comes from an even greater and far earthier American.

“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”– Ben Franklin

What a perfect description. And what a great prescription for an improved quality of life in our beloved but increasingly hurried and harried America.