Things I Like - Food

I'm not a big reader of the WSJ - I don't need additional sources of information to tell me that my 401K is in the dumpster. But I do like the Life & Style section of the online site.

Lately, the Journal has been running articles aimed at helping us make our dining and drinking dollars go further during this pesky recession. Aren't they the best?

One article that caught my eye was 10 Ways to Save Money Ordering Wine. I thought the tips were pretty good advice, regardless of how much you wanted to spend on wine.

Take number 4:

Scope out the owner's passion for value. If there are, say, a dozen wines from South Africa on the list and no more than a handful from anywhere else, chances are the owner knows and cares about South African wine -- and therefore is more likely to know good values from there. While we are big fans of Chilean wines for their taste and value, we have seen far too many lists recently with just one Chilean wine on the list and it's usually inexpensive. It's clearly there as a "value wine," but our guess is that the owner doesn't know anything about Chilean wine and therefore honestly has no idea if this particular wine is a good value or not. And all of this relates to food passions, too: At a restaurant where the owner's passion is fish, we wouldn't usually expect to find great value in American Cabernet Sauvignon.

Check out the article to learn about the 'Chardonnay Tax' and why you should never order the 2nd least expensive bottle on the list.

10 Ways to Save Money Ordering Wine