Gaja scores again with a blend

I remember meeting Angelo Gaja in Washington, D.C., more than 20 years ago. At the time he was just starting to gain notoriety for blending grape varieties and introducing Piedmont to controversial winemaking techniques. He declassified his wines and risked it all.

He was widely criticized by fellow winemakers, but eventually won out. He reduced the use of oak and added malolactic fermentation. His wines today sell for a lot of money -- his famous barbarescos can cost more than $300.

Although 78 years old today, he insists he hasn't retired even though his two daughters are operating the family business.

I was delighted to recently find Gaja Sito Moresco Langhe ($50), a red blend that includes nebbolio, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Unlike his barolos and barbarescos, this blend is ore approachable -- a niche the family must have wanted to accommodate fans who don't want to wait decades for their Gaja wines to mature.

Sito Moresco is named after a family who farmed this 25-acre estate in Barbaresco before it was purchased by Gaja Winery.

This is a delicious wine that continues the family's tradition of blending Bordeaux grape varieties with indigenous grapes.

Phinney at it again

David Phinney, the wine genius that gave us The Prisoner, has launched a wine project in Roussillon. Called Department 66 -- the region is in France's department 66 -- the wines are very good. 

The Fragile rose is OK, but I thought "D66" -- a blend of grenache, carignan, syrah -- is outstanding. It is loaded with fine tannins to suggest aging ability and garrigue character.  Department 66's "Others" wine adds mourvedre to the blend and is equally delicious and ageworthy.

Phinney seems prone to impulse. He was in Italy when first struck with the wine bug. He was standing at an airport when he created his "Legacy" series after being inspired by  a bumper decal. He fell in love with the natural beauty of the Roussillon region that he launched Department 66 and made Maury a second home.

I'm not complaining. D66 sells for $38 a bottle; Others goes for $25.  Fair prices for what you get.

Feeling blue? Here's a wine for you

Those damn French are at it again. A blue wine is selling like quiche in southern France. Sacre bleu!

"Vindigo," a chardonnay made in Spain, is selling out at hotels in the French town of Sete. It is marketed by Rene Le Bail just in time for the vacation season along the Cote d'Azur. He likens the wine to the blue waters of the French Riviera and insists he will limit distribution to small on-premise locations.

The first 2,000-bottle order was sold in days. He's ordered 35,000 more bottles.

The turquoise color comes from a naturally occurring pigment, called anthocanin that's derived from filtering the white wine through grape skins. Frankly, it must look more like Windex.

Debunking those wine rules

I was reading a recipe the other day that called for a Far Niente chardonnay and I imagined chefs scurrying around town in a fruitless search for the wine.  How silly. There is more than one chardonnay that would do well with a recipe.

And that got me to thinking of rules. Guidelines in the wine world are appreciated, but rules are not because they are so absolute. Take, for example, white wine with fish and red wine with meat. Good guideline, but I can come up with many exceptions. Tuna and salmon do better with red wines.

And then there is the rule that cheap wines on restaurant wine lists are terrible. I had a Boutari wine from Greece the other night for $34 and it was great, despite being the cheapest white wine on the list. With markups as high as 400 percent, you can't afford to order the most expensive wine.

What about the rule of serving white wine in narrow, tapered glasses? I've recently discovered that a full-body chardonnay tastes better when poured in a wide mouth glass generally reserved for red wines. A complex chardonnay needs to breathe before you pick up its subtleties.

I can go on and on about rules.. But I won't.

Old mourvedre shows the power of the grape

I'm a sucker for deals on old wines. They are often discounted because a store is eager to unload them. However, they come with risk. If they were in excellent condition, they wouldn't be discounted, right?

While touring Domaine Tempier in Bandol, I noticed a half-dozen wines from La Laidiere, a neighboring property Domaine Tempier had recently acquired. Red blends (mourvedre, grenache and cinsault) dating back to the 1991 vintage were selling for under 30 euros apiece.  I'm sure Tempier got them with the deal and was eager to sell them because they were someone else's wine.

Veronique Peyraud, one of the sisters running Domaine Tempier, recommended to me the 1993 because it had the highest concentration of mourvedre -- 80 percent. For about $30, how could I resist?

It was a fabulous wine -- the fruit was a little tired, but the structure was holding up. It showed the longevity of wines made mostly from mourvedre.

Veronique was right to point me to a mourvedre-dominated wine. I enjoyed Domaine Tempier's 2014 red blend -- about 60 percent mourvedre -- the following night. It was a beautiful, tannic monster with dense, complex dark berry fruit. Clearly, it could age 20 years.

Mourvedre, called monastrell in neighboring Spain, is a foundation grape to blends made in southern France. Although it often has off-putting aromas, mourvedre provides the hammer to a blend. Grenache and cinsault soften the wine and their floral elements offset the rotten egg notes that often accompany mourvedre.

Tempier's mourvedre now has me in search of similar wines from the Bandol area.

Domaine Tempier's exquiste wines

While on a cruise of the Med, my wife and I had the pleasure of stopping by Domaine Tempier while our ship was moored off Bandol, France. Bandol is arguably the epi-center of the world’s best rose. It is here where rose is often the primary wine made for vacationing Europeans who love to sit in their sidewalk cafes in August.

I have long admired Tempier’s roses – not cheap but more complex and drier than cheap copycats from the U.S. and Spain that are mere after-thoughts in large portfolios. Tempier didn’t disappoint me during my brief visit with Veronique Peyraud, one of several children involved in the operation owned by their parents since 1936. The property was in the family before then, but winemaking was interrupted by phylloxera in the 1940s. Still, some gnarled vines managed to survive and are more than 100 years old.

As good as the roses are, I was more surprised by the Domaine Tempier white blend of clairette, ugni blanc, bourboulenc and marsanne. You get the feeling this exquisite, dry wine will age gracefully for decades.

The estate’s flagship may be its Cuvee Classique, a red blend of mourvedre (75 percent), grenache, cinsault and carignan. It is incredibly dense and complex with dark fruit flavors and a rustic style with gritty tannins.

Domaine Tempier’s success is due largely to its southern facing vineyards, its soil and maritime winds, but also its particular winemaking standards. It does not fine or filter its wines. It is made from organically grown grapes and natural yeasts are used for fermentation. Its red wines are aged in large oak casks.

Local food, local wine

I never miss an opportunity to taste a local wine. Here in Italy, where my wife and I are on a long cruise, there are local wines galore. Historically, wines were consumed locally as well as being grown locally. That they complemented local food dishes is not a coincidence.  Albarino on Spain's north coast match the local seafood while Burgundy's elegant pinot noirs marry well with Dijon's rabbit stews or rich cassoulets. Generations have enjoyed Alsace's pinot blancs and rieslings with the region's famous daubes. Go there and you'll see why.

While I was in Italy's Porto Venere, just outside Cinque Terra, I found a wine and purchased one of the region's famous blends of vermentino, bosco and arbolla.  Acidic, fresh and pure it was delightful. This region doesn't even try to make red wines -- unlike Alsace that uselessly struggles with its pedestrian pinot noir. 

Finding wines asea

I'm on a cruise of the Med, so unable to post too often. However, last night I was able to share a brief moment with the ship's wine steward who chooses the wines. The task is quite different than what beverage managers experience on land. 

A port manager holds most of the cards, it seems. He or she tells each ship's wine manager what's available. I suspect much of it is surplus wine. The other day our wine steward was pleased to get a couple of hundred bottles of a Provence rose while docked in Marseilles. It was OK, but that's about it. I have found that wine aboard ships -- the plonk that is served poolside as well as at dinner -- is acceptable at best. This is Seabourn, too, an upscale ship. They were pouring Nicolas Feuillatte, however, so that's pretty decent champagne.

The port authority apparently acts like a distributor to incoming ships. Our wine steward says he can order directly from the producer too. I was told they go through more than 1,300 bottles a week, which doesn't seem that great for a ship of 600 passengers.

I decided to order a wine package which for $450 gets me access to 6 wines from a pretty damn good list. The list includes a Fevre chablis, Chapoutier white chatauneuf du pape and a Condrieu, Hauts Bailley bordeaux, Silver Oak, Banfi brunello di montalcino, Masi amarone, North Star merlot, and a few more gems that average about $70 a bottle. For a restaurant, those are good averages for premium wines.

Premium wines selling better, but not in restaurants

A recent report from the Silicon Valley Bank -- strangely the best guide to wine sales -- shows that consumers are spending more on their wine. 

The bank reported that "premium" wine sales are increasing while those for cheaper wine under $10 is decreasing. These cheaper wines are often composed of bulk wines, box wines, etc.  Wines that cost more aren't necessarily "premium" in my book, but nonetheless wines in the $15-20 and $20-plus have shown sales increases.

More interesting to me in the study was the change in restaurant wines. Consumers are spending less in restaurants, partly because of a shift to more casual restaurants where wine plays a smaller role.  Also, chain restaurants sell mass-produced wines because they can depend on supply. An increasing number of smaller wineries are ignoring the three-tier system and selling their wines directly to consumers.

More so, consumers at all ages are frowning at restaurant mark-ups. It's about time to rebel. Younger drinkers, theorizes Silicon Valley Bank's study, know they can pay less for wine in a store and are having only a glass of wine or beer in restaurants. Seniors on fixed income are opting for a glass of wine while dining out and millennials are favoring at-home meals.

I'm a senior citizen now, but until recently my wife and I have enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine while dining out. We recently switched to a glass of wine, which we know has a higher mark-up than a bottle. The bottled wines we like are often the most expensive and I know the mark-up from experience. A restaurant bill with wine can regularly top $200 and occasionally $300. I can't sustained a dining bill this high twice a week.

We like to dine at home, which is the trend nowadays. I have a good cellar of aged wines to tap into. But even those seniors who don't have a cellar, it's still significantly cheaper to buy steak and wine and serve them at home. Restaurants are hurting themselves with these high mark-ups.

And this brings me back to my annoyances: restaurants should be less focused on mass producers of common wines marked up 300-400 percent. Instead, they should find the small producers who will appeal to the curious consumer and whose prices are more moderate. They are out there -- I taste these wines every week. 

Sure, these producers may not be able to replenish inventory but why not have a list of daily specials? When they run out, list something else. I've seen this done in restaurants with great success. Those restaurant owners who aren't lazy and who are willing to spend some time on their wine lists will reap the rewards.

Game of Wine

I don't know what's more addictive: wine or Game of Thrones. But, now you can have both.

Vintage Wine Estates has more wine choices of Games of Throne wine, created in cooperation with the award-winning HBO drama. Wine is featured in many scenes.

The wines includes chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, red blend and the new pinot noir. The corks are imprinted with either the House Tyrell or House Martell sigil.

These wines are available at www.gamesofthroneswines.com

Is the wholesaler in jeopardy?

More and more people are getting their wines directly from producers and that's a trend that should concern wholesalers and retailers who are losing their cuts. 

According to Gomberg, Fredrikson Associates, a wine industry data collection firm, direct-to-consumer sales accounted for 10 percent of the wine retail market in 2017. Volume increased 158 percent over the previous year.  The trend is obvious.

Most of the DtC business is from wineries with limited production and who have a hard time getting attention from distributors who don't want to mess with them. According to Forbes, 80 percent of total domestic wineries produce no more than 5,000 annual cases each.

I was recently talking to Ryan Harris, president of Domaine Serene in the Williamette Valley, about this issue. He said 80 percent of Domaine Serene's revenue is from direct-to-consumer sales and that represents about 50 percent of their volume. Those numbers stunned me because I don't consider Domaine Serene to be small.

It is the same conclusion I've heard from other producers who focus on expensive, high-end wines. Wholesalers focus on large producers -- Constellation, Treasury Wine Estates, Gallo and Kendall-Jackson, for instance -- who can keep the pipeline filled. Expensive wines with small productions can't get the attention of wholesalers focused primarily on quantity and numbers.

Harris' two numbers show the attraction of stronger marketing in DtC sales: you can make more money if you eliminate the middlemen.

Domaine Serene has a strong wine club. West Coast producers have amped up their wine clubs and hospitality centers that attract tourists to their facilities. That, coupled with more liberal laws regarding the shipment of alcoholic beverages, and you have a movement. However, it's not necessary positive for consumers.

DtC sales mean consumers have greater access to hard-to-find wines sold exclusively at wineries. However, they don't come cheap. I recently ordered some Lorenza rose from the winery, thinking it was hard to find in my local market. Later, I discovered Total Wine was selling it for $3 less a bottle and there was no shipping charges.

Location, location, Locations

David Phinney, the genius behind The Prisoner, continues with his new Locations' series of wines. 

A couple of years ago, Phinney had the idea that he could do so much more with his wine if there weren't any boundaries to the vineyards. In other words, why not blend a Rhone grenache with a Languedoc grenache and call it "F" for France?  Thus was born Locations, a portfolio of wines that now include Spain, Italy, Texas, Washington, New York and more. The labels for each of them mimic a bumper sticker: a single letter in an oval circle.

The recent releases I tasted are enjoyable, although without characteristics that would help locate them. In other words, their generic flavors didn't tell me they were French or Californian. However, Phinney seems to take care in selecting complementing grape varieties. "E5" (Spain) is a common blend of garnacha, tempranillo, monastrell and carinena. "NZ" (New Zealand) is entirely sauvignon blanc (what else is there to blend in New Zealand?).  "W" is a combination of syrah, merlot and petit sirah grapes. "E5" was my favorite.

The best news is that these tasty wines are sold for $20. 

Mount Etna erupting with unique wine

I can't imagine owning vineyards on the slopes of Mount Etna, Sicily's still active volcano. First, I'd be looking over my shoulder a lot. Second, the volcanic rock from molten lava would seem inpenetrable.

But it hasn't been inpenetrable for centuries. In fact, some of the vines in the Etna region are more than 100 years old. Growers simply break up the rock and let the vines reach through the heavy nutrients in the fertile soil in their search for water.

Etna, a DOC since 1968, is a trendy growing region today as Italian winemakers have been buying up property in the last several decades. Expect to hear more about wines from the Etna region.

Giovanni Valenti

One producer new to the region is Giovanni Valenti, a well-established businessman who launched a second career in wine. Valenti grew up in Catania, Sicily and always dreamed of making wine with his father on his home island. They bought a nearly abandoned vineyard in 2009 and a dilapidated distillery to make the wine. Since then they have bought several more vineyards to amass a collection of nearly 100 acres.

I met with Valenti recently to taste his wines.  The grape varieties are hardly well known: the top red variety is nerello mascalese and the top white grape is carricante. Catine Valenti wines are named after writers, operas and other products of Italian fine art history.

The red 2013 Poesia ($50) was medium body and is compared to something between a nebbiolo and a pinot noir from Burgundy. It was light colored and had the texture of a slightly aged Marsanay, Valenti said they aged very well. 

I wasn't as impressed with the red wines as I was with the 2017 Enrico IV ($28) made from carricante grapes. It had intense aromas and a rich texture that reminded me of a premier cru burgundy. I bought several bottles. 

What I love about the wines from the Etna region is that they are unique. And, when you're tasting chardonnay or sauvignon blanc most of your life, unique is good. 

Bonjour, Domaine Serene -- et, bon chance?

Ken and Grace Evenstad have always loved the chardonnay and pinot noir from Burgundy. In the late 1980s they launched one of the most successful pinot noir houses in the Willamette Valley and sought to pursue their dream of making exceptional wine in the United States.  Indeed, Domaine Serene has been winning awards ever since.

But the Evenstads couldn't let go of their Burgundian dreams. In 2015, they purchased a 15th century chateau -- Chateau de la Crée -- in Santenay. I would think that breakthrough would cause a stir in the chateau's tiny village of Santenay. After all, it wasn't that long ago that Robert Mondavi was rudely rebuffed by the French in an attempt to plant a vineyard in Languedoc. 

But, the Evenstads were no Mondavis.

"The deal was completed in a few months," said Ryan Harris, president of Domaine Serene.

An American wine producer buying an historic chateau of this order is more unusual than a French producer buying wine property in the United States. Moet-Chandon was among the first to do launch a sparkling wine company in California in 1973. Champagne makers Taittinger and Roederer soon followed. Then came Clos du Val, Dominus, Opus One (a partnership of Mondavi and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild). In Oregon, Burgundian Robert Drouhin of Maison Joseph Drouhin raised eyebrows -- and prestige -- when he launched Domaine Drouhin in Oregon's Willamette Valley. But the Evanstads were the first Oregonians to own a chateau in Burgundy.

Grace Evenstad, who was recently hosting a wine dinner in Naples, Fl., said the differences between making wine in Oregon and France were clear one day when she showed a Burgundian winemaker their Willamette Valley vineyards. 

"She said to me, 'Which rows are yours?'" Evenstad said.

In Burgundy, it is common for a vineyard to have multiple owners.

Harris said that throwing a lot of parties, meeting neighbors, and developing good relations with local officials paved the way for the purchase. But, the transition to making good wine was not so smooth.

Evenstad said, "Everyone is now gone."

Whether they left on their own or were replaced wasn't clear, but she said that they were surprised by the lack of "science" at Chateau de la Crée. She said vineyards lack adequate spacing between rows and even if the vineyards were bio-dynamically farmed -- whatever that means in France -- the pesticides and other chemicals from neighboring vineyards were wafting onto those of Chateau de la Crée.

Ken and Grace Evenstad.

She was quick to distance Domaine Serene from the pinot noirs being poured at the tasting. "They aren't ours," she warned, lest someone came away with an unfavorable impression of their new venture. 

Despite the caveat, I enjoyed the Chateau de la Crée Clos de la Confrerie Monopole Santenay.

The tasting bravely paired a Domaine Serene pinot noir with a Chateau de la Crée pinot noir and there was an obvious New World vs. Old World difference. The Santenay wines had an earthy, barnyard profile classic to Burgundy and its terroir. However, the Domaine Serene Evanstad Reserve was undeniably a superior pinot noir.

It will be interesting to watch what the Evenstads do with the wines from this historic chateau and how they manage the French. Will they Americanize them with bolder fruit, higher alcohols and more fruit extraction?

I don't think it is going to be as smooth as they think. They are asking the French to adapt to their practices and no matter how much better they are, it doesn't always go down well with the sensitive French.

Bon chance, Ken and Grace.

Alsace: the forgotten and neglected

Every time I have a riesling or pinot blanc from Alsace, I am enveloped in regret The only ageworthy riesling I have in my cellar is from Washington state. The last time I ordered one in a restaurant was when I spotted a deal for a 10-year-old Weinbach pinot blanc. It was sublime, but did I go out and buy some of the current vintage? No.

Colmar, the commercial center of Alsace.

With that in mind, I recently dived into a flight of Alsace pinot blanc, pinot gris and pinot noir from several Alsace providers.  All of these pinot iterations are deceiving: all are descendants of pinot noir. Pinot gris in Alsace is pinot grigio in Italy. Same grape, just a different interpretation of "gray" that describes the grape skin. Pinot blanc is slightly different in that it is a genetic mutation of pinot noir.  Any flavor differences between the three white grapes is mostly a result of terroir and climate.

First, let me say Alsace producers should get out of the red wine business. For centuries they have struggled to make a decent pinot noir and I have yet to taste one. The two I sampled were awkward, vegetal and astringent. With great pinot noirs coming out of Burgundy and the West Coast, there are ample comparisons.

Second, the region's rieslings and pinot blancs are showing less sweetness nowadays. Just one pinot gris from Emile Beyer exhibited some residual sugar in my tasting flight. The 2013 Albert Boxer pinot blanc reserve was unique -- five years of bottle age gave it a riper, slightly maderized profile I loved. And it was dry.

The 2016 Domaine Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc was a perfect example of a simple Alsace wines with varietal stone fruit flavors, a dash of mineral and citrus.

The pinot blancs and pinot gris are great summer sippers. The austere French pinot gris is superior in my mind to the fruity, extracted Italian pinot grigio.

About those ripe fruit bombs you like...

I was having lunch the other day with Jay Turnipseed, a winemaker I first met when he was at Mount Veeder and Franciscan wineries. Today, Jay is making wine for the Rutherford Wine Company, which has an extensive portfolio of wines, including Round Hill, Rutherford Ranch and Scott Family wines.  I always enjoy talking to Jay because he is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to growing grapes and making wine.

The preponderance of fruit-ladened, bold and alcoholic red wines on the market has been bugging me of late, so I was eager to hear Jay's thoughts. His bourbon-barrel-aged zinfandel falls into that category, so Jay wasn't against this style because, as he said, it's a business decision. Sell whatever sells.

However, Jay said that you lose a lot of varietal flavor when you over-extract a wine -- and that alone helped me to understand why I don't like these fruit bombs. He said that especially with cabernet sauvignon you can lose the currant flavor and instead pick up more dark cherry and plum character. Aha, I thought. I don't like plums in my wine and prefer fresh blackberry or black cherry flavors. 

This riper style began more than a decade ago when wine critics like Robert Parker Jr. gave ripe wines with high alcohol levels a 90-plus ranking. In order to earn a higher score, winemakers changed their style of winemaking. Pretty soon the old style of wines with tannins and varietal character became rare.

Whether you like the Old World style of wines -- as do I -- is personal.  But if you like ripe fruit, today's wines are made for you.

Roses have arisen

I've never tasted so many rosés before this year. Thanks to its growing popularity, there are more rosés on the market as the segment continues to expand. But with this growth comes growing pains. Not all of it is good, much of it is a producer's after-thought, and some of it is being made with odd grape varieties, such as pinot gris.

Lorenza wine producers Michele Ouellet and her mother Melinda Kearney.

Perhaps that is why we like Lorenza, a California rosé being made by mother/daughter team Melinda Kearney and Michele Ouellet. Ten years ago they fell in love with rosé and decided to form a company that made nothing but rosé. And, they use the grape varieties traditionally used by the French who have perfected rosé: grenache, syrah, cinsault and mourvedre.

I enjoy wine made with these varieties, but I also found several good ones made with pinot noir. 

From France, I liked the many rosés made by Michel Chapoutier, Whispering Angel, Minuity, and Guigal. From the West Coast, my favorites were those rosés made by Inman, Ponzi, Lorenza and Cline. 

I'll have a full report in my column next week.

Maybe I have it all wrong

Last  night I sprung a surprise quiz on a group of wine enthusiasts who were attending one of my programs. I asked them to give me a thumbs up or down on two mystery wines: Apothic Brew, a Gallo wine infused with coffee, and Four Virtues, a zinfandel partially aged in toasted bourbon barrels.

I hated Apothic Brew -- not just because it assaulted my palate but because it was a laboratory Frankenstein developed by a marketing department eager to tap into consumers' gullibility. At least the Four Virtues zinfandel redeemed itself with good flavors, even though it was too sweet for my palate. 

Nonetheless, the audience showed that my seasoned palate is not what most winemakers care about.  Half of the crowd liked the Four Virtues zin; less than half like the Apothic Brew. They all found the wines "interesting" and appreciated the opportunity to try something off the wall.

And, maybe that's the point. I often harp that wine drinkers regularly stick to the same wines year after year when there are so many alternatives that will deliver pleasure. So why shouldn't they try a blend of wine and coffee? Who am I to say they shouldn't like it?

Wine conventions are being dismantled daily as winemakers seek to find the new trend (white zinfandel, orange wines, rose, et al) that will earn them and their shareholders big profits. Fetzer was the first to make wine in bourbon barrels and it flew off the shelf. Others -- Rutherford Wine Company, Robert Mondavi, Gallo -- jumped on the bandwagon. Do bourbon barrels add anything to the wine? I'm not sure -- but it's a great marketing tool because bourbon is trending nowadays and the producers are making money.

Making a wine list interesting is not that difficult

My wife and I were in Nashville, Tn, and Asheville, NC, the last week. We were resolved to find a wasteland of culinary treats because we had sadly consigned our views to old stereotypes -- you know, grits, ribs, fried foods. But tucked into corners of these growing communities were trendy eateries focused on farm-to-table dishes. If you look, you will find them: Curate, Rhubarb, Husk, Rolf & Daughters, and others we didn't have the time to try.

These restaurants are serving local meat, fish and vegetables like ramps but with a chef's twist on preparation and sauces. Similarly, the wine had a spin with emphasis on organically grown wines, zesty orange wines and roses.  I was very impressed with wine lists that dared to ignore commercial chardonnays and merlots. 
 

There seemed to be a greater emphasis on farm-to-table in these small and hardly cosmopolitan towns that there is in my previous locales, such as Naples, FL and Annapolis, MD. Bully for them.

How to reconcile broken stemware accidents

Like many others, I was dumbfounded to read about an Australian woman's plight after she accidentally broke a wine glass while visiting her rich in-laws. Not much was made of the accident when it occurred, but she was later the recipient of a bill for more than $200 for the broken glass. The note came with a web link where she could order a replacement. 

The woman, who just had her inlaw's first grandchild, was living in a converted garage with her husband, so it's not as if they have the same wealth as her husband's parents. 

This is so wrong on many counts, but it raises the issue of stemware in the home. If you serve wine as often as I do, you break glasses. I break glasses and even carafes. My guests break glasses. No one does it intentionally and I should be generous enough to forgive my guests if they accidentally break a glass just as I hope they would forgive me if I broke a glass in their homes. If the stemware is that precious to me, I shouldn't serve it. 

If I'm hosting a sit-down dinner, I serve wine in my best stemware. If my guests are gathering on the lanai or in the pool, I serve everyday plonk in plastic tumblers. Broken glass on pavers or, worse, in the pool is catastrophic. Everyone seems to understand.

When people break a glass, they feel horrible and offer to pay. It is ridiculous for me in let them pay.  It's the cost of having fun with friend. For this woman's inlaws to present a bill to her says one thing to me: she married into the wrong family.