YOUR PIZZA AND WINE MAY HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN YOU THINK

Have you ever wondered how some restaurants or pizza shops can charge $9.99 for a large pizza with two toppings, make money, and advertise on national TV? Apparently cutting costs and boosting profits seem to be the only way to achieve this goal.

So let me propose this scenerio (I'll get to the wine in a moment)

Pizza place #1 buys its pizza crusts already made and frozen with a basic cheese topping already on it. They heat it up, add some sauce (premade) and throw on whatever toppings you wanted. $9.99

Pizza place #2 buys its crusts made but not frozen, the roll it out, and use their own, premade sauce and veggies. Large with 2 toppings $16.99

Pizza place #3 makes its dough, rolls it, makes its own sauce, does its own vegetables and meats, and voila $19.99.

So which one do you want to eat?

Many Americans have no idea of HOW to eat in the first place...it comes in a bag and is eaten in a car..and its coooool.

Others, like our beloved governor, eats pizza with a knife and fork !

Most Americans could not tell fresh ingredients, from frozen ingredients and could care less. Half of the pizza is done 10 minutes after it was delivered (sitting in a car for the past half hour)

Wine is very very similar. Most Americans cannot tell a good wine from a bad wine i.e. cheaply made or tenderly expertly made.

That is why many people I have come in brief contact with are proud to be drinking Two Buck whatever its called, or liquid in a box.

Lord, forgive them, for the know not what they do !

We are experiencing an tsunami of poor wine flooding our stores and people still flock to buy it because it is cheap and does the trick.

Much of this wine's origins are unknown. And you can tell this by learning how to read the label.

If the label (front or back) indicates "produced and bottled by" that means the ABC vineyards grew the grapes, picked the grapes, produced the juice which they fermented into the wine you are about to purchase. Each step of the process is controlled by the winery. $19.99 the bottle.

If the label indicates "vinted and cellared by" that means somebody else produced the grape juice (from all over the place) and this company fermented it and then labeled it " Slippin Jimmies Red". $14.99

If the label indicates cellered and labeled by ...that is your premade pizza in a bottle. Somebody else grew the grapes, picked the grapes, somebody else made the wine, and sold it in bulk as wine, to "Honest Harry's Bodega" Where it comes from, what it is made from...who knows. All that is important is the price $8.99

And this does not only apply to bottom of the barrel stuff. Some very expensive "cult" wines, which sell for $50-60.00 a bottle are not made by anybody from this planet. The bottler just puts their label on it, gets some erudite grad student to write about the tar and strawberry finish...voila.

I am told that several Ohio wineries out east, because of the devastating winter last year, could not grow grapes. So an enterprising individual acted as the go between for a California bulk winery and these smaller Ohio wineries. Results...bottle cost with wine before the frost..$7.00 and sold for $10.00 Now bottle cost with wine is $1.50 and sells for $10.00.

Watch your TV..if you see an NFL game sponsored by The old Rickety Fence Winery in Astabula...be scared...be very scared.