Favorite Wines You No Longer Buy Due to Pricing

Hey Everyone, I know topics related to increasing prices of wines are not uncommon, but I thought this might be an interesting way to present it and see a lot of perspectives:

Throughout your wine buying career, what favorite wine(s) or producer(s) do you no longer buy (regularly or at all) due to the price increasing?

At what price(s) did you decide they were no longer worth the cost?

Which of your favorite wines that you currently buy are you considering no longer buying or fear that after a few more years they may become out of reach or not worth the price?

I’d like to focus on wines you’ve bought to drink, not ones purchased to resell. It’s always interesting to see different perspectives on value.

Gonon, Allemand, too many to name in Cote de Nuits. I’m also an idiot as I remember getting offers for Marcel Juge Cornas at $89.00 and passing. I can’t add Juge to this list though because I didn’t buy it.

All of the Bordeaux first growths and some of the super seconds. A number of N. Rhones e.g. Chave, Allemand. I quit at around $200/bottle, which is my limit other than special occasion bottles, so it’s been a while for many of them. Never got bitten by the red Burg bug, though if I had been I imagine the list would be long.

A lot of CA Cabernet but much of that was as much a realization that they didn’t turn into Bordeaux after 20 years as it was due to pricing.

All were bought to drink but I’ll confess to selling a bunch of Lafite when prices went crazy.

I don’t worry about what will happen to prices going forward. I do my cost/benefit analysis as wines are released and decide on a case-by-case (or bottle-by-bottle) basis.

Colgin, stopped a while ago.
Bdx first growths

Larkmead - quit when minimum prices crossed $100 (and $200 for Solari)
Alpha Omega - quit when prices on the single vineyard cabs crossed $200 and climbing

Worried about Epoch Estate with their prices climbing towards $100. Will hold out as long as I can.

most burgundies . . .

No more Gonon St. Joseph for me, since it’s got ‘popularity pricing’ now.

Thanks for the responses so far.
We all know there are a lot of common favorites that have become so incredibly expensive (1st Growths, tons of Burgundy, cult Napa stuff etc.) and I’m interested in hearing which you’ve stopped buying, but I think it might be most interesting hearing at what price points people started to jumping ship. We may have more varying responses in this category. I also think it’s interesting when people quote offers they had in years past that were complete steals compared to pricing now (like Josh’s Juge Cornas offer).

So many…

Chave when it got over $100
Allemand when it got over $150
Clos Rougeard when the ‘Clos’ broached $100
All grand cru Burgundy but Drouhin Bonnes Mares in particular was one I bought every year
Haut Brion and LMHB when they broached $100

ditto
plus some Napa cults and lots of Burgundy

Penfolds Grange when it got over $250 a bottle.

Most recently Maybach Materium as it is 200+/- a bottle all in.

There have been several, but notably (and sadly) Schrader and Myriad Dr. Crane. Schrader was first to go when it went from $175 to $225. A couple of years later, I just decided to cull everything over $100 after the annual expenditures ballooned so badly and I realized that for me, it just wasn’t worth it anymore. Cheers!

Everything now apart from pycm and champagne. Used to buy fairly large amounts of Bordeaux, Burgundy and German Riesling from top tier producers.

German Riesling got too expensive for you?

I no longer buy my favorite wines because the vintages are no longer made. [cry.gif]

Allemand, Clape and Jamet
2013 was my last vintage, once 2015 pricing went over $150. Admittedly, being 53 and not wanting to plonk down that kind of money for wines that really do need 15 years+ was also a factor.

Figeac got too pricey for me, but I did grab 2014 - a vintage that I love - for $80. I would not pay the current asking price for the new wines.

I lost my allocation on Rougeard in 2012 but doubt that I would pay current prices.

I got the '15 Clape for $139.99 which is still a buy for me. Sorrel was around that too. I look at those two as good as any for Northern Rhone and when stuff gets dramatically more expensive than that, I’ll just buy more of that.

Clos Ste. Hune

You must have a higher tolerance (and surely a higher income), because I stopped Chave when it got above $60, Allemand at $90, and Rougeard at about $80…

Probably the quickest time I’ve seen prices shoot up has been the last 5-6 years. During the heart of the Great Recession there were some great deals that we may never see again: 1st growths for around a century note for example.

Too many Burgs. Allemand as others have mentioned. Gonon hasn’t really gone up that much if you can get it at it’s actual retail release, but many more people chasing it, so that’s become much more difficult. Clape has been mentioned, but it’s price increase has been “relatively” reasonable. I got into Rougeard well into it’s climb to the stratosphere, but it’s now jumped well beyond price threshold. Chave has been over $100 for a couple of decades.