So from now on, please go here — early and often — to keep up with the blog. (If for some reason that link is not working, the URL is http://www.startribune.com/blogs/51796337.html.

Those of you getting RSS feeds, please adjust accordingly.

But it’s not the kind of story that I would write for our print edition. Check that: It is almost exactly the kind of piece I often write, including just a few weeks ago. The difference is that our coverage is geared very heavily toward consumers, and any wine-biz story I do is focused on how sundry happenings and situations affect you, the people buying wine.

We decided when the Liquid Assets column started that the focus would be local local local — happenings here and wines that are available here. (Running the Wall Street Journal column had caused readers to look for wines that aren’t sold here, a frustration for them and merchants.)

That meant no musings on “the dew-dappled vineyards during bud break on the Oakville Grade” and no industry-focused pieces that were too “inside baseball.” And that when I tackled a subject such as restaurant struggles, the ramifications for wine consumers would be a big part of it.

In today’s piece, Eric deftly touches on the effects (now and for the near future) of the industry’s current economic struggles on consumers, but his piece is more focused on the wine biz and the people working in it. He does have this toward the end:

“Those who don’t want to spend a lot on wine may also be drinking better in the near future. Premium producers who need to make room for the new vintage may sell their wines on the bulk market, even at a loss. These premium wines in turn will be repackaged and sold inexpensively, though it will be difficult for consumers to identify which bottles benefit from a premium wine infusion.”

I had one of those wines this week, made from grapes that almost certainly sold for a lot more money in recent years but came cheap because of the current surplus. Crane Lake is a label from Bronco of “Two-Buck Chuck” fame/infamy.  In the past, I had found their wines insipid and/or treacly-sweet, aside from a Brut (!). On Monday, though, I found their new chardonnay to have really nice fruit that wasn’t overly extracted or oaked. When I tried Crane Lake’s California shiraz last night, however, it was back to the candy counter.

That’s the kind of minefield we’ll continue to walk in under-$8 wines. But we now have a better shot at some discoveries there.

So kudos to Minnesota Monthly’s Dara Moskowitz Grundahl for unearthing a wonderful story on fallen businessman Tom Petters’ wine cellar and its “pedestrian innards.” Hilarious stuff.

I’m actually jealous of Grundahl for something else in that issue, wine recommendations that follow a pattern I wanted to do in the weekly Liquid Assets column but couldn’t get the space to pull off: weeknight, weekend and special-occasion wines (she uses “birthday,” but I prefer something that comes around more than once a year).

And that’s not all that the folks at the mag are up to. They’re also sponsors of a fabulous event on Aug. 9, the Fresh Taste Festival. Some great winemakers, including Shane Finley, and food purveyors will be on hand parceling out all manner of sustainable and organic and biodynamic goodies.

For tickets and more info, go here.

Alabama has banned the sale of Cycles Gladiator wines because of the label, which a side-angle drawing of a nude woman on it. (For those naughty readers who might want to scrutinize the label to discern if there’s anything ostensibly offensive about it, here’s a good-sized image.)

Having grown up in  neighboring Tennessee, I know more than I care to about Alabama, where they think about college football 365 days a year (Vikings fandom absolutely pales next to this) and act like they think about God 24 hours a day. It has produced civil-rights atrocities from Selma and the Birmingham church bombings through George Wallace and current Sen. James Sessions, who told colleagues that he ”used to think [the Ku Klux Klan] was OK” until discovering that some of them were “pot smokers.” 

It’s also a state that only a few months ago finally allowed the sale of beer that contains more than 6 percent alcohol and wine that exceeds 14.9 percent — and only after a State Senate committee added an amendment preventing the sale of such “stronger” beverages in convenient stores.

I often hear people complain about a “Puritan streak” in these parts, blaming it for the unavailability of alcoholic beverages in groceries and on Sundays. But I’ll take what we’ve got and our winters over the yayhoo-ism that pervades Alabama.

For what it’s worth, the “offensive” Cycles Gladiator logo replicates a poster created in 1895. Now it should be noted that this was in France. So maybe we should call this a “freedom label.”

The mmmm’s and aaah’s came early and often, but at the outset — actually, just after a sublime 1995 Bruno Paillard N.P.U. Champagne — there was a distinct chorus of ewwww’s. The initial pour of a 1991 Calera Mt. Harlan Chardonnay provided a seriously stinky nose. We finally landed on “Granny’s closet” as the best descriptor for this amalgam of soiled, sweat-soaked laundry and a touch of mothball on the nose.

Blessedly, the wine tasted swell and intriguing, and within a few hours it was a transcendent, Meursault-like experience. Another old white also improved mightily as the night went along: a 1993 Nikolahof Wachau Gruner Veltliner. Steely at the outset, stunningly soft-in mid-palate and bracingly acidic (in a perfect way) on the finish, this wine was perhaps the best pairing for the lush, lemon-laced leeks at dinnertime.

There was one more wonderful white to come: a vibrant, Sancerre-like 2005 Dog Point Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc. And one utterly transcendent one: a 2005 Chateau de Beaucastel Vielles Vignes. I’m not nearly a good enough writer to do justice to this wine, but “sensual” and “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” might begin to cover it. I can still taste it this morning, and can’t say whether that’s an indelible memory or the finish hanging on for dear sweet life.

Beaucastel also supplied the unforgettable evening’s top rouge experience, my first opportunity to try the Hommage. This 2003 wine had dirt and wild herbs and dried fruit and kick-ass tannins and smoke and … well, absolutely everything one could want in a wine. Plus it paired spectacularly with the grilled kangaroo tenderloin and mushrooms gracing our plates.

I’ve often said that the 1989 Beaucastel CDP would be my dessert island/last meal wine, but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to upgrade to the Hommage. Or the Vielles Vignes white.

My friend Joe talked about how there are white and red Burgundies that could provide the same kind of ridiculously sublime experience as these two Beaucastel wines, but you never knew if you would get that the way you do with these. Amen, my brother.

Being small also affords company president Aleksander Pantic the opportunity to focus on, as he puts it, “bringing in wines that I want to drink.”

That includes one of the most spectacular wines I’ve tasted this summer, a red from Pantic’s favorite winery, Malvira, the Roero Trinita Riserva. It’s just what a great nebbiolo should be: rich and lush, rustic and long; last I checked, the Bacchus store still had this $50 steal on its shelves. Actually, Pantic says it best: “All [Malvira] wines have a character, have a soul.”

Malvira is located in the Langhe area of Piedmont, the region Pantic and then-co-owner Robert Alexander dealt with exclusively when they started Domace Vino earlier this decade. Alexander has moved on — actually, he has moved to Italy — and Pantic soon realized that he “couldn’t just focus on three wineries” and needed to add wines from other parts of the world (check out his portfolio here).

Among them are Opolo, a newer outfit in Paso Robles that’s co-owned by Minnesota native Rick Quinn; Shea Wine Cellars, where the operators of one of Oregon’s most storied vineyards have decided to start bottling some of those delectable grapes on their own; and Core Wine Company, which is making small-lot Rhone varietals and blends in the Santa Barbara area.

Many of Domace Vino’s offerings are at the spendy end, which has, he admits, been “challenging” in this economy. But having a small sales staff enables him to home in on retailers and restaurateurs “who understand what I’m selling. You do that and you pour for them and convince them to run specials on your wine” to get it introduced to consumers in an uber-cluttered marketplace.  

I recently wrote about how blessed we are to have a plethora of local distributors. Operations such as Pantic’s are a big reason why. 

That works both ways. In my view, the outlets selling Domace Vino wines are working esepcially hard to find great juice from every possible source. In this wholesaler’s case, those locales include Bacchus, France44, McDonald’s (no, not MickeyD’s, but an up-and-coming store in south Minneapolis), Byerly’s, South Lyndale, Top Ten, Lakeville’s munis, Vescio’s Lucia’s, Chiang Mai Thai, the Melting Pot, Ursula’s Wine Bar, 128 Cafe and the Northeast Social Club.

We’re lucky to have them, too.

*Meritage, my favorite downtown St. Paul restaurant, is having a fun weekly promotion (for cork dorks, at the very least) called “Blind Wednesday.” For $15, guests on Wednesday get a flight of three wines (3-ounce pours). They try to answer four questions on each wine and get 50 cents off for every correct answer. The flight is free for anyone who answers all 12 questions correctly. It wouldn’t be the worst idea to sample from Meritage’s amazing cheese cart while taking the challenge.

*For those who think green, Artisan Vineyards is hosting a tasting benefitting the Land Stewardship Project at 6 p.m. on July 28. Besides sampling some tasty organic and sustainable wines from Oregon, attendees can chat up two viticulturalists and three winemakers (St. Innocent’s Mark Vlossak, A to Z and Rex Hill’s Michael Davies and Torii Mor’s Jon Tomaselli. Pre-registration is required for the $20 event; call 651-487-1212 or go here.

*“Wine That’s Found Its Time: Minnesota Vineyards” is the theme of the University of Minnesota’s Curiosity Camp session on July 29. Grape guru Peter Hemstad will delve deeply into his favorite topic, including the process of “tweezing,” which is essential to developing grape vines that work here. Wanna know what “tweezing” means? Sign up for the 9:30 a.m-4:30 p.m. session, which starts at the St. Paul campus and then heads out to local vineyards. Cost is $135; call 612-624-4000.

She’s not sure why. It was a long but not especially cold winter, with decent snow cover during the worst stretches. “It hit 22 below” at the vineyard near Hastings, she said, and “we’ve been in a drought the last 4, 5 years. This year we had ¾ of an inch of rain from snow melt till the 1^st of June.”

Oddly (or maybe not), the grapes that have been developed locally for their cold-hardiness fared worst during the winter. “I lost 90 percent of my Frontenac,” Bailly said. “But my French grapes that my father planted in 1973 have shown no stress. The Marechel Foch and Leon Millet came through no problem.”

Bailly added that she will get a waiver on the Minnesota law that requires wineries to use at least 50 percent state-grown grapes in the overall wine output, until she can get new vines up and going. And I wouldn’t expect her to plant a whole lot more Frontenac, even though her very tasty Voyageurs blend contains about 30 percent Frontenac. “I think Frontenac does better in a warmer climate,” she said. “I think the heat in states like Illinois gives it a juicier fruit flavor.” said Bailly.

That point actually was relevant to the reason I originally had called Nan: the announcement that for the first time, Minnesota would be part of the nation’s largest AVA (American Viticultural Area). The Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA will be cover 29,914 square miles, including some or all of 10 counties in Minnesota, nine in Illinois, 18 in Iowa, and 23 in Wisconsin. It runs from near St. Paul to Moline, Ill., and is 50 times bigger than Bordeaux. The Alexandria Lakes AVA in western Minnesota was established in 2005.

“It’s a pretty broad-reaching area,” said Bailly. “It will be pretty hard to say that grapes being grown in the Hiawatha Valley where we are are like grapes being grown in Galena [Ill.]. But it does highlight that there are winemakers here, or maybe they should be called hobbyists, sufferers, strugglers. That hey, there’s a small burgeoning area where they are growing grapes and making wine.

“We’re still figuring it out here.”

And fighting the good fight, in Bailly’s case.

     ********

For the location and other info on Bailly’s vineyard and 23 other Minnesota wineries, check out our map on the upper-right side of this page.

I’d been hoping for a long while to add Minnesota wineries to the map on the top right of this page. (Actually, I had hoped for a separate map for them, but I’m fine with this; might actually prefer it. And molto grazie to Chandra Akkira for making this happen!)

Anyway, at some point soon, I’ll try to add the hours that these places are open. Just wanted to get the boilerplate stuff done for now. (And there’s a lot more to come on this page, including recommended red wines and Wine Country travel tips.)

I think Minnesota wines have improved markedly in the last five years. I’m not saying that the wines, often priced in the $14-$18 range, are as good as the better wines from long-established growing regions at that price point — but they’re better than a lot of them.

Growing grapes and making wine in Tundraland is not for sissies — I’ll be posting soon on the latest bad news for the state’s oldest winery. But rewarding these people’s efforts is not the only reason to buy these wines. Nor is state pride. The proof need to be in the bottle, and more and more it actually is.

Plus, a nice ride out in the country and some time spent sipping on some juice at a scenic vineyard is not a sucky way to spend a lovely summer’s day. There should be no obligation to buy — you’ve already spent some dough on petrol to get there — but more and more, there’s incentive to do so.

So yesterday was a delight. I spent part of the afternoon at a World Class Wines tasting that featured great reds (including an $8 Lesac Petite Crau), whites (the $22 Emile Baillard Sancerre Croq Caillotes positively rocked, and the $9 Tertre de launeay Entre-deux-Mers was delightful) and pinks (another $9 gem, the Routas Rose’).

Then last night a couple of friends came by for baseball’s All-Star Game. My buddy Craig brought along a positively beautiful California cab made in old-world style, the 2004. Diamond Creek Red Rocks Terrace (from a winery founded by Minnesota native Al Brounstein). Full and rustic and deep as the ocean, it would have been the star of most any other night.

And for a time, it was last night. That’s because we had to wait a couple of hours while my friend Karl’s 2005 Louis Jadot Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux-Saint-Jacques unfolded in a decanter. It started off tight as a, well I can’t use the metaphor he rolled out, but our patience was more than rewarded. It was pure silk on the palate, with lovely cherry flavors and a bountiful finish, with a mystique that kept you coming back for more more more.

This is the kind of tres elegante wine that helps Burghounds keep the faith. It’s also an example of why Mike Steinberger’s Bastille Day column was spot-on. The premise: France is still the king of the wine world. The redoubtable Steinberger delineates several reasons why, as he puts it:

“For all the viticultural progress in California, Australia, Argentina, and elsewhere, most of the major grape varieties — pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, grenache, syrah, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc — still achieve their finest expressions on French soil. I think France also makes the best sweet, sparkling, and rosé wines. Certainly, there is no other bubbly that can rival a premium Champagne for complexity and pleasure. Hang out in wine circles long enough and you will meet scores of people who were once hooked on Napa cabernets or Australian shirazes but who have now partially or completely sworn them off in favor of Bordeaux, the Rhône, and other things French. You don’t find much traffic heading in the opposite direction.”