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Buying Wine: When is the Price Right?
Wine consumption in the United States is growing. Recent forecasts from the alcohol industry state that America will be the leading wine consumer in the world by 2010. With the cost per bottle rising and variances in prices from $2 to $2,000, wine selection still remains an enigma to most. The few educated consumers of high-end wines will use the poetic references in sources, such as Wine Spectator, to add to their personal brand awareness of regions, grape varieties, producers and best value wines that will offer positive experiences on all (dollar) consumption levels. The majority of us, or the less educated consumers, will rely on product cues (price, promotions, packaging, ease of consumption and consumption occasion) to choose our wine. When there is a limited knowledge of a region or producer at the tip of our tongue, most of us will rely on price as a proxy for quality and strength of brand. Although "buying up" may excite some folks in the wine world, without proper appreciation we can easily be turned off and regret spending $10 or $20 more than what we could have spent on an acceptable bottle or box of wine that sits for many sips in our refrigerator. Before we go shopping, let's try to explain the overwhelming selection process and eventually understand why the massive price gap between some wines and others exists. As stated above, wine consumers fall into two categories - educated and less educated. But for the individual consumer in either category we know this for certain - taste is subjective. Everyone has an opinion and a reason for their purchase. It is difficult to argue that one is right or wrong because taste means different things to different people. This happens to be a buying influencer that exists outside the appreciation of wine or shopping for clothes. Some consumers will buy as a means to project an image about themselves, while others will make a purchase based solely on consumption occasion. But one argument that is without debate is that there is a growing trend amongst consumers towards recognizing the art form in wine production. Even before the release of the critically acclaimed movie Sideways, vineyard vacations have been showing spiked growth in the travel industry (last year Napa Valley had seen a 15% increase in vacationers year-over-year). A trip to a vineyard will not only inform your senses, it will educate you on the effort it takes to produce every single bottle. And this is one reason wine is revered by consumers, because grape alcohol production transcends the typical farming process and the final product. Compare a vineyard to an orange farm. Oranges grow on trees. The orange ripens, is picked and transported to your local produce store. You expect that orange will have the same acidic sweetness whether it is from Florida or Southern Italy. You know what you are buying each and every time you shop for an orange at your local market. If you were to buy grapes to eat you would have similar expectations. But grapes to wine, then you start to complicate matters. First, grapes we eat are dominated by water. With each bite, a grape explodes in your mouth, sweetened water with a tart edible flesh. Grape farmers are less concerned about the fruit's potential, because the potential in their product lies in its ability to be commoditized. But for grapes that are eventually pressed into wine, they are a product of the environment - the soil, the weather and how the winemaker chooses to extract these elements in the alcoholic beverage produced in every sip. As wine production developed, even without modern technology intervening, there was a noticeable differences in taste from different regions on the map. Take Italy as an example; there are 20 different winemaking regions, producing a product with unique characteristics. So, as we graduate from buying an orange or a grape, with little or no risk in what we are purchasing, we are now looking to buy a wine and we are faced with a choice of 1 in 20. But that is simplifying the purchase process. Within each wine-producing region there are hundreds of different producers trying to put forth a unique effort. Now add, Australia, Chile, France, Germany, Spain and the United States into the mix and the choices are limitless. But there is help choosing wines - wine stores, supermarkets and restaurants are the arbiters of sifting through a few select regions and grape varieties (i.e. varietals) that are in popular demand. But the popular demand is too en masse for the serious wine drinker who wishes to carve a place for himself in the pantheon of connoisseurs. Unfortunately, connoisseurship creates demand that drives prices. So, should we blame the connoisseurs, or should we get to know them better to help us less educated choose the right bottle at the right price for our budget? Let's get to know the connoisseurs and their consumption habits. Knowledge will be the first differentiating point - ignorance is defined as "lack of knowledge." Appreciation and the vocabulary or lingo that supports appreciation will be the second point of differentiation - lingo is defined as a "specialized set of terms required to support a language." And finally, a purchase from a recent auction of a first-growth Bordeaux from Chateau Latour that costs a mere $30,000 for a case of the 1961 vintage will solidify the connoisseur's social status - social status as defined by those of us who hover on the outskirts of it could be considered pompous, snobbish or is some cases, flat out stupid. (Note: A Bordeaux wine is a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and, in limited use, Cabernet Franc.) So with our lack of knowledge, ability to speak the language and disbelief that a social circle would exist around a fruit juice, we ask, is a bottle of Chateau Latour more worthy of an accompanying libretto, when someone writes a $2,500 New York City mortgage-check per bottle, than a bottle of Charles Shaw - "Two Buck Chuck" - which claims, a good wine for a great deal? According to an economist, a limited supply of a quality product will result in a subsequent price demand. But a 125,000% variance is only explainable by the self-imposed statement it makes about the purchaser. Is it true that Latour will be a vastly different wine than "Two Buck Chuck"? Yes, but 125,000 points different, no. A few points of differentiation can be attributed to the wine's taste, but beyond a few distinct characteristics, as we established, taste is subjective in the mouth of the beholder. And in most cases, when tasting a wine that reaches astronomical price points, even to the educated consumer, there is an invisible bar that exists that carries a sign, "any who pay the price beyond this barrier, will probably not be able to tell the difference." Is it as simple as saying a $300 bottle of 1997 Antinori Solaia is exactly the same as a $30 bottle of E. Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape from 1999? (The Solaia is an Italian Super Tuscan, i.e. Chianti; The Chateauneuf-du-Pape is a French Rhone, i.e. Syrah based wine.) Both wines received Wine Spectator's #1 spot in the annual Top 100 in the last five years. The Wine Spectator uses criteria such as quality, value, availability and the excitement the wine creates in the consumer. Excluding variable factors such as weather in vintage year the wines will taste different (i.e. fruit, earth, spice, etc.). Remember, different regions producing different products, but all in all, you are bound to find two wines of comparable quality that offer balance in the glass, in your mouth and hopefully that balance that doesn't disrupt the surroundings you are enjoying it in. Hence, the "X-factor" as noted by the Wine Spectator as "excitement." So, if your subjective taste delivers excitement (social status aside), it is safe to say that no price can be put on your enjoyment. Enjoyment is defined as the pleasure one receives while experiencing something. So, another reason presents itself, is it intoxication after all? Wine as a means of intoxication does play a role in consumption and inevitably does make everything it comes in contact with taste and feel better. But Wine Spectator never talks about a bottle of Latour, Solaia or Chateauneuf-du-Pape as a means to a drunken end. The Spectator rather wax poetic on how a winemaker turned fruit into a floral arrangement in your glass. Grapes have that unique ability to take on their environment. During the fermentation process and subsequent aging, grapes will embody elements of the soil, the fruit and the canisters (e.x. French oak) that they are stored in. And as the wine ages, its characteristics will change - similar to a child who fully develops their features by the time we sit teary-eyed at their college graduation. And therefore, wine is a complicated, and, at times, an expensive pursuit - like college. But, wine in all its variety encapsulates a story in every sip - the archaeology of the vineyard or a night of drinking, again like college. For the former experience, this is where a little education or a trip to a winery will change your drinking experience. So, with a little education, we can descend on our neighborhood wine store or restaurant, and feel a connection to the wine shop owners who help our selection process, we will even be less intimidated by the restaurant's sommelier in all his sartorial splendor, who protects the leather bound wine list as if it were the Gutenberg Bible. As consumers, we will always be price sensitive, but the goal is to create a conversation, sometimes about the wine itself, but more importantly with the people who are enjoying it. And if we are fortunate, a memory will be made not on the price paid, but the stories themselves.
Wine Post - August'05 Back to home...
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