My attempt to do a review of sorts for the wine world, both local and international, had me reviewing the entire year’s collection of world-leading wine magazines, online wine blogs and major wine-related websites. There seemed to be an agreement that the big winner for 2009 in the wine world was the consumer.

Consumer wins

Due to the world recession, fine wine (the ones that are usually only bought by the high-end restaurants, some hotels and a chosen few collectors) prices plummeted on the world market. Most of these were highly allocated wines which also became very readily available as the producers and distributors needed to move product. Local importers got calls from their suppliers offering wines of which they once could get only four or five cases for the year; now they could get almost any quantity they wanted. Just for clarification, we are not talking about the wines we see on our supermarket shelves, these are already among the lower-priced products.

More wine events

The local wine market definitely got some wings in 2009; the number of wine-related events held by the service clubs, hotels and wine importers showed a notable increase over previous years. Many more wine dinners were held in 2009, thanks in part to organisations like Caribbean Producers and Half Moon who celebrated significant milestones in 2009. Wine dinners were also held at The Ritz Carlton, Riu, Kingston Hilton, and the East lawns of Devon house.

The year 2009 saw a visit from international wine personality and wine writer, author of the book Wine Bible – Karen MacNeil. This visit was surrounded by a number of exciting wine events, both educational and culinary in nature.

New Wine Bars Open

Two new wine-centric locations giving consumers more choices to sit and relax were opened within months of each other in Kingston in the latter part of 2009. Chateaux Vino has a nice lounge feel and while they do serve wines, cocktails in particular, Martinis seem to be their speciality.

Bin 26 Wine Bar is the first of its kind in Kingston with over 300 wines in bottles and a number of ever changing wines by the glass. The feel is more like sitting in a wine cellar, listening to great music while nibbling on a bite to eat. The Jamaican wine consumer, new or experienced, has more choices.

Bottle Shock

Another major wine movie (remember Sideways in 2005) out in 2009 – Bottle Shock: One small American winery and its workers are about to show the exalted French that the world’s finest wines will now come from the other red, white and blue. Based on an inspiring true story – The Judgement of Paris. “Bottle shock” describes what can happen to wine as it travels from place to place. Set in 1976, Randall Miller’s widescreen docudrama concerns the real-life showdown between California’s wineries and their French counterparts.

My big wine moment in 2009 was my visit to the vineyards of Chile – more on that next week.

Other wine stories in 2009 include: Prosecco outselling Champagne in Christmas 2009; Sweet wines become sexy again; Rose is all the rage again; Bordeaux first growth Chateau Lafite is developing a vineyard in China; Red wine increases the female sex drive; Biodynamics becoming more prominent; Screwcap making headway; more research shows Health benefits of wine with moderate consumption; Wineries going green; Climate change affecting what is growing where. We will look at these developments and more in 2010.

Cheers! With more options, there is no reason to drink bad wine.

Chris Reckord is an independent wine consultant who operates DeVine Wine Services with his wife Kerri-Anne. Chris & Kerri are also part owners of Jamaica’s first and only wine-only bar -Bin 26 Wine Bar. Please send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com . Follow us on twitter.com/DeVineWines