I certainly enjoy the Yellow Tail labels and billboards — nothing like a nubile little mermaid to get the juices flowing. They have some good creative work behind them; more, I dare say, than a coked up word-of-mouth buzz brigade with a reach of less than 100,000.

It is fortunate that Roomie and I prefer Chardonnay and have taste buds that rarely disagree. French stuff? Stuff it. Our favorite is Kendall Jackson (Calif), but a very close second and one that most often occupies our rack, at a somewhat lower price, is Yellow Tail (Aussie). The last few years, as Australian wines have come on strong (read: pumped their marketing campaigns), they get most of my wine dollars for several of the excellent Chardonnays, and more recently, the several Merlots and Shirazs that we like to punctuate the occasional chunk of dead cow that we consume. Other than KJ, the only other time I look to California is for Cabernet or Burgundy.

For nouveau snob appeal with decent wines at reasonable prices, there’s a whole list of boutique wines coming out of Argentina, Chile, and other S. American regions.