You know your bandwagon's got steam when even the French hop on

[Drew]

"The whole business of terroir is, IMHO, horribly overworked."

If you mean, beat to death or over marketed, I would agree but who's at fault here? The French or the rest of the world? It seems to me that to market a product you need a buzz word. Terroir is natural to their language and as wine became trendy in this country and Americans demand, "product uniqueness", terroir became the buzz word to promote their product. Ford, GM, Polo, Calvin Klein, Hoover, Dirt Devil etc, etc, etc. do it every day, buzz words...exclusivity. It has absolutly nothing to do with product quality and everything to do with the color of green, or whatever color a Franc note is. I tend to not involve myself in these types of discussions because to me they're meaningless. I drink wine because I like it, and it likes me. I can drink to my fill, pair it with many foods, be social and romantic with it and it doesn't bite me. Occassional overindulgence doesn't leave me wasted and feeling bad. But to ponder terroir and French wine almost as a French conspiracy to manipulate the American masses and disguise bad wine is a story, just maybe well left for Hollywood. The French are really no more different than any other ancient society that believes that they can do certain things a little better than we, particularly food and drink related, given they've had thousands of years experience to our several hundred. I consider myself above average where wine knowledge is concerned but I don't include myself in the Order of Wine-Weenies. I also believe that most who participate on this board arn't card carrying members either. As an observation it seems to me that you obsess and lade the pleasurable act of drinking wine down with qualifiers, disclaimers etc. by your numerous posts that, quite frankly, carry a condesending tone. I would suggest you spend some more time with your Seattle friend and stop over analyizing wine you drink beyond "Tastes Good" or Tastes Bad". This is all presented as opinion and in good cheer, SB, personnaly I enjoy your recs and knowledgeable offerings.

Drew