IN EXCESS

The new moderation of the ‘90s has California’s wineries a trifle unnerved. Wary of those who think of wine as just another manifestation of demon liquor and disheartened by declining consumption, vineyard owners are going to great lengths to prove that wine is not so much alcohol as a necessary complement to any meal, indeed, a side dish.

To thwart “health-fascist zealots who hope to end wine as we know it on earth,” says Harvey Posert, spokesman for the Robert Mondavi Winery, “the push is on to sculpt wines that can be drunk with food.” These days, wineries in Napa-Sonoma are ushering wine writers into opulent dining rooms instead of tasting rooms. Noted chefs Julia Child, Paul Bocuse and Madeleine Kamman have been hired to instruct vineyard chefs, and to convince the public of the culinary virtues of wine, which, Robert Mondavi maintains, is actually liquid food. “After all,” Posert notes, “nobody sidles up to a bar and says, ‘Give me a double fume blanc.’ ”