More people are drinking wine in a box than ever before. Read about the best boxed wines on Slashfood.

The word "Bordeaux" doesn't exactly conjure up images of value wine--that's what South Africa, Chile, and Australia are for--but a new list of Bordeaux most affordable wines just might change that. The Top 100 list includes 100 wines priced between $8 and $35 and were chosen by an expert panel of judges. In other words, there's more to Bordeaux than fabled first growths and $2,000 sticker prices.

Check out the list here. Have you had any of these?

April may be the cruelest month, but January is surely the coldest. It's the perfect time to break out big, robust red wines that warm your body and soul. And what better to eat with a big red wine than a big steaming bowl of chili?

This weekend we had about a dozen people over for a blind tasting of six Carmeneres, all from Chile (the country--don't get Chile and chili confused!). Carmenere is Chile's signature grape, brought over from Bordeaux in the late 19th century. The wine is deeply dark and full-bodied, and in Chile can have a somewhat vegetal flavor, though it can also be quite fruity and spicy.

The six we tried ranged in price from $10 to $47. Chile is known around the world for its value wine, and it definitely delivered in our tasting. When the bags were pulled off, it turned out that several of us put the $10 wine in our top favorites. Surprisingly, everyone from the least- to the most-experienced tasters felt that all of the wines were good, and comparable in their quality, even though the prices were not.

More tasting notes and my "Chili for a Crowd" recipe after the jump.

Start a conversation about value wines and you may hear votes for Chile, Spain, and Australia. Try this one on for size: Bulgaria. As scarce as Bulgarian wines are in the U.S., distributor Steve Ondush of Grapes Unlimited, who was pouring a series of Bulgarian wines at the San Antonio New World Wine & Food Festival, told me that Bulgaria is actually the second largest exporter of bottled wine in the world. So how come we don't all drink it here?

For one thing, most of the wine is exported to western European countries, where it's regarded as a value wine. For another, though Bulgaria has been producing wine practically since time began, its industry has been interrupted a few times, first by a 500-year domination by the Ottoman Empire and later by Communism. The current wine industry is less than 100 years old in this little Eastern European country tucked between Romania, Greece, and Turkey.

I tasted through all of the Grapes Unlimited selection and can make these generalizations from the wines I tried:

1. The red wines are much better than the whites, which tend to be on the sweetish side, and not in a good way.
2. Reds tend to be old-world style, less fruity and alcoholic than American or other new-world red wines.

Favorite of the tasting was the 2003 Damianitza No Man's Land Gold from the Melnik region of Bulgaria. It's a blend of 65 percent Merlot and 35 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, grown on the five-mile strip of land that used to separate communist Bulgaria from its southern neighbors. The wine was good now but had firm enough tannins to make me think it could still age for a bit. Not bad for a "value" region.

Have you had Bulgarian wines? Will it be America's next go-to value wine?

If you're a Vayniac, you already know that Gary Vaynerchuk came out with a book called 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World. Marisa announced the book here at Slashfood about a month and a half ago, and I just got my hands on a copy a few weeks ago.

I didn't put it down until I had at least looked at every single wine on the list. It's Gary first list of favorite and recommended wines, and it's chock full of enthusiasm, energy, and genuinely great recommendations.

Here are some ways this book can be useful for you:

• Exploring wine if you've never really tried wine before and have no idea where to start.
• Choosing great wines for specific occasions from Gary's very cleverly organized and insightful lists for any event.
• Finding the best wine for that flavor profile you really like (best dry Reisling, best "fruit bomb" red, etc.).
• Learning how you can become better at recognizing what you like about wine and what wines you're passionate about (hint: drink more wine!).
• Understanding that wine can be fun, and that it doesn't have to be serious or snobby.

What I really love about this book is the genuine authenticity that just reverberates from everything that Gary has to say. Each individual wine write-up is like getting to read an episode of Wine Library TV, chock full of enthusiasm, honesty, and insightful wine wisdom. The only thing I would change about the book is that, for a truly ignorant wine novice like myself, it's hard to tell which wines are white or red, etc., which is important for me since I have a hard time really enjoying reds and wanted to go through and pick out all of the wines that I knew I would want to try right off of the bat. A quick cheat sheet or wine primer at the beginning of the book (Petite Sirah is red, Reislings are white, etc.) would have been really helpful for me.

Overall, the book is well written, very straightforward in Gary's typical style, and I think it has potential to really help the everyday wine enthusiast reach a level of immersion in the wine world that many of us don't think we can reach. It can be expensive to start out in wine and buy a bottle of everything, especially if you're back at square one when the wine isn't a quality example of the genre you're trying to explore. This book makes jumping into every corner of the wine world a real possibility for every wine drinker, and that is something really worth sharing. Keep a copy handy for your own trips to the liquor store, and give a copy to a wine-loving (or wine-curious) friend!

This dispatch from the floor of the New York Wine Expo comes to us from Alysia Lew, AOL staffer and wine lover. Thanks Alysia!

Foodies and wine enthusiasts flocked to the International Restaurant and Food Show of New York this weekend. However, one of the pillars of this show – and the best reason to trek to the Jacob Javits Convention Center on a rainy Saturday - was the New York Wine Expo.

The Wine Expo featured over 600 wines from 170 winemakers from around the world and was a great opportunity for wine lovers to taste and learn about new wines including many not yet available in the US. The tickets for the event cost $75 for Friday night and $85 for Saturday. While a seemingly steep price, it's a great way to spend a day and can be a perfect date or a fun place to go with friends.

Upon entering the Wine Expo, attendees are handed a souvenir tasting glass. Each vineyard has their own booth where you simply go up to the counter and get a sample of the wines the vineyard is highlighting for the show. You can learn about the way the grapes were harvested, the wine making process and what makes each wine standout. The expo was divided into regions, with New York and California wines taking up the most space. Not to be outdone, international wines were also prominently featured, with Argentina and Chile being the standouts in that category.

I love it when someone puts "palooza" at the end of a word, to make the person, thing, or event seem big and grand. Has anyone used the term "Blogapalooza" yet? I think that pretty much describes what we do here every single day.

The Boston Globe's Stephen Meuse recently held his annual Plonkapalooza wine tasting. Plonk is a red or white that you can get for under $10. Meuse and several other wine lovers get together every year to find out what the best ones are in Massachusetts (but available beyond, of course). It's so popular that they're suggesting five bottles every month now, but still get together every year for the annual big event.

This year there was a new panel that included wine store owners and professors. Here's a list of the 50 wines nominated this year, and the above link will tell you which reds and which whites won. 24 of the 50 were in the top 5 of each taster, and many of the wines came from South Africa.

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine section has officially moved from Thursday to Friday.

Wine tasting isn't exactly a cheap pastime, but still, California wineries drew more visitors than Major League Baseball in 2003. Because tasting rooms are a critical source of income for many wineries, they're stepping up wtih creating fancier, more elaborate :destinations." If you're planning to go tastin gin the Wine Country, the Chronicle aslo has tips for how to do it like a VIP, and ratings/reviews of tasting rooms. This week, the ylook at Coppola and Parducci, both of which get three out of four stars (***).

The Wine Selection of the week is South Central Coast Zinfandels, which "could convert Zinfandel naysayers by demonstrating that high alcohol and fruit can be present but not overshadow the wines' other charms."

To pair with the Zins? Braised meatballs. If you're drinking something along the lines of "a red wine that is not too serious or weighty, such as a California-appellation Merlot," then pair it with Beecher's Handmade Flagship, a Cheddar-like cheese from Seattle.

The question is, would you really go all the way to the Napa Valley wine country and not taste wine?

Doubtful.

However, Mimi Sheraton thinks that Napa has enough of a gourmet food offering - farms, cheesemakers and restaurants - that one could skip the vineyards, particularly during the September harvest season.

Her reasoning is multi-fold. The region benefits from the lingering after-effects of culinary giants like Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman and Jeremiah Tower. There is also a branch of the CIA, Greystone, in the town of St. Helena, where Sheraton recommends appetizers (rather than a full meal). In the town of Napa, Copia, the American Center for wine, offers classes, demonstrations and tastings. There are farms thar provide the local restaurants with fresh ingredients, and the restaurants themselves are notable: La Toque, Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Terra, and of course, Thomas Keller's Bouchon and French Laundry.

Still, I think I'd want to squeeze in at least one vineyard.

Mario Batali will cook for you and 11 of your closest friends, if you are the highest bidder at a charity auction in Michigan next month. The "Sunday afternoon lunch in the true style of Rome", to be held on August 27th, includes a cooking lesson with as much participation as you want to have in preparing the food, wine tasting and (of course) a 10-course lunch. He auctioned a similar lunch for the group, The Conservancy, last year, which sold for $25,000. Batali says that he offers 6 to 10 such functions for charitable events every year and that most of them sell for around $50,000.

The silent auction closes on August 1st and bids can be placed online. The bidding starts at $5,000.

Wine reviews can sometimes be a bit... annoying. Once in a while, the flavors described in a review will actually come through in the wine, but more often than not the "crisp" flavor and "pineapple notes" are nowhere to be seen. Or, at least, they cannot be identified by the average wine drinker.

To actually get some use out of the reviews, we've come up with a game to play the next time you have some friends over. Print out a copy of the review and pour each of your friends a glass of the wine. As they sample it, get them to try and guess how the reviewer described it. They almost always involve a fruit or a wood, so that's a good one to guess, but you can get creative. Here's a review to get you started:

With Wine Blogging Wednesday #22 wrapped up by Tim at Wine Cast - who would have thought there were so many red wines still with less than 12.5% alcohol - our thoughts turn to the next theme.

Hosted by Vivi's Wine Journal the theme for round 23 is  Bar-B-Que Wines. What wines do you serve with your burnt sausages, undercooked chicken and wilted salad? OK so I am dissing your culinary endevours, I am sure your BBQs offer an array of delicious specialities cooked to perfection. BUt wine is the thing here. Do you go for a general perpose white, something relativly inocculous or do you go for some full-bodied, mighty red bursting with flavour to match the smoky edge to those hulking slabs of beef?

Whatever your selection would be, Viuv's Wine Journal would like to hear from you by the 5th July.

Winefest is a charity fund raising event with various activities stretching over two days (12th and 13th of May 2006). WineFest events take place at The Historic Depot in Minneapolis. Space is limited, and tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

You can enhance your wine knowledge at the Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association symposium and go on to taste plenty of wines at the grand wine tasting and nibble on an array of appetizers. The Saturday has a meet the wine maker reception before a fine wine dinner. Sounds good. Prices range from $75 for the wine tasting to $500 for the reception and dinner.

Full details on the website.

In the kitchen, Italians celebrate Easter with a fabulous brunch of asparagus flan, crespelles filled with vegetables, and a strawberry crostata. Blanching Spring's vegetables takes only a minutes. Sea salt can be grey.

Around town on the dining scene, SIV visits the brand new Ford's Filling Station. The Hatfields, who opened Cortez in San Francisco's Adagio Hotel, are coming to LA to open a new restaurant called Hatfields. Nook Bistro shares the secret of its Caesar Salad.

In wine, drink clubs are the new book club, and if you want to do a tasting at home, you need some basics. Like wine glasses. The Wine of the Week is 2003 Domaine Olivier Pithon Côtes du Roussillon, "power with finesse" for about $19 retail.

Tomorrow is the monthly highlight in the wine bloggers calendar: Wine Blogging Wednesday.

As is the nature of these blog events a new month means a new host and a new theme. For April the theme is Anything But Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, or Riesling as selected by podcast wine site Wine For Newbies. While the choice may seem limiting by taking out the three main wine grapes there is certainly plenty to explore. Look to Portugal (Bical or Fernao Pires),  or to Spain (Albarino). Italy of course has plenty of grapes to select from and, if you can find them, Greece is smothered with native varietals all suitable for sampling for this event.

France shouldn't be ignored. There is Chenin Blanc in the Loire, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc in Alsace and down south Viognier, Bourboulenc and the Marsanne/Rousanne duo. This is what I enjoy so much about Wine Blogging Wednesday it forces you to look to more interesting bottles and experiment.

[image Andrew Barrow]