Automated layout w/sections and subsections

I suspect this is possible, but I'm apparently not looking in the right places.
I'd like to do an automated layout from a data file, with sections and subsections. The normal "data source" mail merge-type functionality doesn't offer any obvious ways to deal with sections, headings, etc. -- it just spits out one record after another.
More specifically, I want to automate the generation of a wine list (which is updated often, so manual work is a continuing annoyance). It needs to have major sections with headlines (e.g. "sparkling wines," "red wine," "dry white wines," etc.) and within those sections subsections with subheads (e.g. "Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauternes, etc.). The source data is coming from Cellartracker (in a CSV or TSV file). I'm ok with doing some pre-processing on the file outside of InDesign to generate the section data. But I can't figure out how to actually automate the generation of the list. The best thing I've been able to come up with is manually doing a separate run for each section, but that's labor intensive and I know I can do better. Ideally I'd like to be able to just feed it a data file, and have a perfectly formatted file come out the other end.
I'm happy to read docs, I just need a pointer to the right place. My searching thus far hasn't been very fruitful. Any tips would be great. Thanks!

Sounds like you've already gotten this worked out...
Since InDesign's data merge feature can't make formatting decisions based on the data content (well, not major decisions anyway) I still use Microsoft Word 2004 for that. I have a big project I work on a couple of times a year. I created a template with each of the forms that data could take -- some were headings, some single-cell tables, some paragraphs -- and exported that template as Tagged Text. Bringing those building blocks into a Mail Merge document in Word, I have MS Word decide which piece of tagged text to use, and populate it with the appropriate text from the database. That generates a new Tagged Text file. I paste in the "boilerplate copy" from the top of the tagged text file and bring it back into Indesign.
There must be an easier way, but I can't get the client to do anything with Tagged Text in their database program, so this way evolved. It actually works, though it's pretty messy to look at.

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Hello there,
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PS: I attached a file showing the generated table of contents (on the ii-iii page that I wanted it to appear on), with the frontpages page panel, which shows the page numbering as well. Also I included the Book Panel, so you see how the pages are set up.

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My function is working but not as I expect it to. The problem is that when Section and Subvision are not found in the object aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode xml, I get an error NullReference Exception was unhandled by user code. Object reference not set
to an instance of an object.
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The if statement I used in my function did not work. When it found Section element, it did not check for Subdivision.
How do I check for both and add them if they exist. If they do not exist, I do not need to do anything and should not throw an error since they are optional.
Object aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode has this xml
<ns:GetStatutesRequest xmlns:ns="http://www.courts.state.mn.us/StatuteService/1.0">
<ns:Statute>
<ns:Chapter>169</ns:Chapter>

<ns:Section>191</ns:Section>

<ns:Subdivision>a</ns:Subdivision>
</ns:Statute>
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<ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest xmlns:ns="http://crimnet.state.mn.us/mnjustice/statute/service/4.0">
<ns1:BasicSearchCriteria xmlns:ns1="http://crimnet.state.mn.us/mnjustice/statute/messages/4.0">
<ns2:Chapter xmlns:ns2="http://crimnet.state.mn.us/mnjustice/statute/4.0"/169</ns2:Chapter>>
<ns2:Section xmlns:ns2="http://crimnet.state.mn.us/mnjustice/statute/4.0"/>191</ns2:Chapter>
<ns2:Subdivision xmlns:ns2="http://crimnet.state.mn.us/mnjustice/statute/4.0"/>a</ns2:Chapter>
</ns1:BasicSearchCriteria>
</ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest>
My Function
Function GetStatutesByChapter(ByVal aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode As XmlNode, ByVal aobjXMLNameSpaceManager As XmlNamespaceManager, ByVal aobjBroker As ServiceCatalog.Library.v4.Broker) As XmlDocument
Dim objXmlRequestMessageDoc As XmlDocument
Dim objXmlResponseMessageDoc As XmlDocument
Dim intCount As Integer
aobjBroker.PostMessageWarehouseInformationalMessage("Chapter found.", 1)
objXmlResponseMessageDoc = New XmlDocument
'Add the first element into the document GetStatuteByChapter with its namespace
objXmlResponseMessageDoc.AppendChild(objXmlResponseMessageDoc.CreateElement("BasicSearchQueryResponse", "http://crimnet.state.mn.us/mnjustice/statute/service/4.0"))
'Create the BCA request message
objXmlRequestMessageDoc = New XmlDocument
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.AppendChild(objXmlRequestMessageDoc.CreateElement("ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager.LookupNamespace("ns")))
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.SelectSingleNode("ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).AppendChild(objXmlRequestMessageDoc.CreateElement("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager.LookupNamespace("ns1")))
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.SelectSingleNode("ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest/ns1:BasicSearchCriteria", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).AppendChild(objXmlRequestMessageDoc.CreateElement("ns2:Chapter", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager.LookupNamespace("st")))
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.SelectSingleNode("ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest/ns1:BasicSearchCriteria", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).AppendChild(objXmlRequestMessageDoc.CreateElement("ns2:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager.LookupNamespace("st")))
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.SelectSingleNode("ns:BasicSearchQueryRequest/ns1:BasicSearchCriteria", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).AppendChild(objXmlRequestMessageDoc.CreateElement("ns2:Subdivision", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager.LookupNamespace("st")))
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria/st:Chapter", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText = aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Chapter", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria/st:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText = aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria/st:Subdivision", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText = aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Subdivision", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText
'check if there is a section and or subdivision if it is there then set the value
'If Not (aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText) Is Nothing Then
' objXmlRequestMessageDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria/st:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText = aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText
'End If
'check if there is a section and or subdivision if it is there then set the value
aobjBroker.PostMessageWarehouseSnapshot(objXmlRequestMessageDoc.OuterXml, "Request Message", 1)
'Call the BCA service
intCount = 0
'Count how many Statute node found
CType(objXmlResponseMessageDoc.SelectSingleNode("ss:GetStatutesResponse/ss:StatutesXml/ss:Statutes", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager), System.Xml.XmlElement).SetAttribute("totalCount", CStr(intCount))
Return objXmlResponseMessageDoc
End Function

I have resolved this issue by using two if statements as follows
'check if there is a section and or subdivision if it is there then set the value
If Not (aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager) Is Nothing) Then
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria/st:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText = aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Section", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText
End If
If Not (aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Subdivision", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager) Is Nothing) Then
objXmlRequestMessageDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("ns1:BasicSearchCriteria/st:Subdivision", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText = aobjXmlGetStatuteRequestNode.SelectSingleNode("ss:Statute/ss:Subdivision", aobjXMLNameSpaceManager).InnerText
End If

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