Vino Veritas

A taste of class in Mass.

You might enjoy this Spanish Rioja, Principe Rio '75. The 1980 Vouvray has good nose and body and a fair price, $4.75, and the Duvino '79 from Northern Italy is a modest red, well worth $2.95 . . . At last, wine tasting with a difference. These oenological odysseys are conducted not in a living room but in well-stocked liquor stores in Cambridge and Newton, Mass. Like many other wine and spirits stores catering to upper-income Bay Staters, they are taking advantage of a new Massachusetts law that permits retailers to let prospective customers sample their wines. The law, introduced by Democratic State Representative Daniel Pokaski, is the only one of its kind in the U.S. Unlike most types of standard-brand hard liquor, most wines are a mystery until they are sampled, Pokaski points out. Retailers enthusiastically endorse the veritas in vino policy. And after a month of on-the-house sampling, store owners report no freeloading lines outside or winos inside.

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