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metaphorically speaking, they make new discoveries—Côte-Rôties, Chiantis, Riojas. Maybe they lose all interest in New World wines; maybe they start buying Old and New World wines. We Burgundy fans like to say that all roads lead to Burgundy, and it is true that many oenophiles do eventually succumb to Burgundy’s siren lure. A lot of wine drinkers are finding their way to Burgundy faster than ever these days. For one thing, Burgundy is very fashionable right now with sommeliers and writers, which is naturally sparking heightened consumer interest in the wines. Also, Pinot Noir has become hugely popular in the past decade, and while a lot of people start out drinking California, Oregon, or New Zealand Pinots, curiosity or serendipity eventually leads them to Pinot’s heartland, Burgundy.
    You often hear wine buffs say, “I’ve got an Old World palate” or “I’ve got a New World palate.” What they are saying is that their preferences lean heavily in one direction or the other. One has to be careful about generalizing when it comes to wine—there are always significant exceptions to the rule—and the dividing line between Old World and New World has been blurring over the past fifteen years. Climate change and stylistic shifts have been bumping up the alcohol levels in Europe; in the 2009 vintage, for instance, some Bordeaux weighed in at well over 14 percent alcohol. Meanwhile, a growing number of New World winemakers, especially in California, are moving away from the fruit-forward, high-alcohol style; they are seeking out cooler sites that can produce leaner, earthier wines. All that said, the New World/Old World dichotomy is still a valid one. Most New World wines continue to show a very different flavor profile from that of European wines. They tend to be more exuberantly fruity, with higher alcohol contents (14 or 15 percent is normal in California) and rounder, softer textures. People accustomed to this style, when first experiencing a leaner, more acidic Burgundy or Barolo, might well find themselves offering a variation on that old W. C. Fields line: Who took the wine out of my wine? But again, judging by the traffic flow, the Old World style has no difficulty winning new fans.
    If you are not sure which side of the divide you belong on, or if you want to put your declared preferences to the test, here’s a suggestion: gather up a bunch of Old World and New World wines, put the bottles in paper bags, and taste them blind with some family or friends. They should be similar wines—say, New Zealand Pinot Noirs versus red Burgundies, or white Burgundies versus California Chardonnays. It is fun and can be very revealing.
    W INE T OOLS
    Like most hobbies, wine offers lots of accessories that are meant to enhance your drinking pleasure. Wine storage units, grape-specific glasses, splashy decanters, fancy corkscrews—without much effort, an oenophile can blow a fortune on wine gear, and plenty of merchants are more than happy to help you do so. But how many wine gizmos do you really need, and how much should you spend on them? The answer depends in part on how seriously you take the wine thing. If you are buying reasonably expensive bottles, you do need a good place to store them. If you have a basement that’s dark, relatively humid, and consistently cool—say, 55 to 60 degrees—you can park all your collectible wines there and they will mature beautifully. If you don’t have a space that meets these requirements, a temperature-controlled wine cabinet would be a wise investment. Good storage matters a lot.
    Good stemware matters, too, a point that the irrepressible Riedel family has driven home with remarkable success over the years. An Austrian glassmaking dynasty, the Riedels have made themselves virtually synonymous with high-quality wine stemware, and they produce a dizzying array of glasses (decanters, too). There is a Chianti glass, a