What a time it's been! Sick for a good week or so and unable to drink wine while taking antibiotics and swigging cough medicine with codeine. At last, I got over the flu and began to enjoy food and wine again. We were looking forward to reviewing some new wines for this blog and then our camera died. No pictures of wine bottles combined with our having fallen out of the habit of writing up the wines we drink has led to a dearth of posting.

So given there is no camera to shoot the labels of wine bottles and that we are not drinking wine as often as we used to, this seemed a good time to address a topic that I think is very important for anyone who is interested in wine. Today we want to talk about wine importers.

Obviously, since we are talking about importers it implies that wine from the U.S. will be excluded in today's discussion. That is unfortunately true but, since there are so many great wines from other countries that are worth trying, it is a minor limitation. In any case, let's get on with today's topic.

Why are importers important?

The best importers have a good palate. They are adept at finding good wines, often at different price points. Often, the wines may not be well known but may be quite delicious. Let's look at an example.

One of my favorite importers is Winebow. This company, led by Leonardo Locasio, selects wines from Italy and more recently from Spain. My experience with this importer is that its selections are always quite interesting and usually quite good for the money. They have a good list of wines that fit into our price range (under $15) as well as some more expensive wines that we have yet to try. A good number of the wines from Winebow that we have tried have become repeat buys.

One of the most important aspects of our respect for Winebow is that when we come across a wine we have never seen before, we are much more willing to try it if we see that it was imported by Winebow. Our experience with this importer has been consistently positive, the wines have been good values, great with food and very evocative of Italy. What more could you want?

Originally known for Italian wines, Winebow has begun to expand into representing wineries from Spain, South Africa, Argentina and other countries. Given our good experiences with their Italian wine selections, we will certainly be looking to try some of these wines from other locales.

Another importer that we have had some good experience with is Tempranillo. This is an importer of Spanish wine. In the last few years, Spanish wines have offered some of the best values around. The wines that we have tried that the Tempranillo company has imported were among the lowest price but best values we have experienced. This is a company whose wine selections we intend to continue to explore.

Read those labels!

So our advice is to always be sure to read the fine print on the labels of wines you enjoy. Note who the importer is. If you don't have a wine store near you where you have good confidence in the recommendations of the sales people, the next best thing is to trust the importer. You will eventually find those importers who consistently provide quality wines. And that can be your roadmap to some very interesting wine experiences.