Britesea
Sustainability Master
It's possible that the problem you are having with American wines is, once again, the American phobia about germs. They go overboard on the sulfites to sterilize everything. DH gets migraines from American bubbly, but the Spanish sparkling wines don't do that to him. I remember visiting Ibiza ( an island off the coast of Barcelona-- part of the same chain of islands as Majorca)-- you could bring your own empty bottle in to the local 'farmacia' where they had these big tuns of red and white wine on the wall and fill your bottle from them. A typical bottle size came out to about 35 american cents at the time (1985). It was not a "great wine", but a very drinkable table wine nevertheless. No one was worried about germs, since they knew the alcohol would take care of that.
I also noticed when I toured some of the famous breweries in Europe, like Heineken and Carlsberg, the beer tasted much better than the same beers in the US. When I questioned them about this, they explained that in order to be allowed to export the beer to the US, they have to put all kinds of germ-killing agents in it and basically 'kill' the beer.
If you have never tried any Eastern European wines, I highly recommend the wines of Romania and Hungary. Trakia in particular makes a Merlot that is divine.
I also noticed when I toured some of the famous breweries in Europe, like Heineken and Carlsberg, the beer tasted much better than the same beers in the US. When I questioned them about this, they explained that in order to be allowed to export the beer to the US, they have to put all kinds of germ-killing agents in it and basically 'kill' the beer.
If you have never tried any Eastern European wines, I highly recommend the wines of Romania and Hungary. Trakia in particular makes a Merlot that is divine.
My ducks were so funny during the hurricane. When it was raining hard and blowing trees down the ducks were having a blast rooting and playing in the rain....silly piggies! 
