Crazy Prices for '14 Duckhorn Three Palms Merlot on WineBid

[Josh_Grossman]

I opened a 1996 tonight that I picked up for $30. It is pretty great for $30.

[Matt_G]

Duckhorn was selling this wine on their website for several days after the WS100 #1 announcement at list price and 10% off for members. Given the lack of popularity of Merlot among the masses I didn’t expect this one to go up much, if at all.

[John_Morris]

I guess the Duckhorn price is just coming into line with Suckling’s #1 Italian wine of the year, the 2015 Tua Rita Redigaffi, a $200+ IGT Tuscan merlot.

[A_So]

Lucky me. Got to taste the Duckhorn recently (double blind too).

Served double blind. Garbage. A laughable attempt at a wine. Sweet and oaky, purple, alcohol, oak, and vanilla. Unidentifiable as to grape, but certainly identifiable as modernist American trash. (93 pts.)

[Victor_Hong]

Sounds nothing like the brambly, complex, muscular Howell Mountain bottlings during the early 1990s.

[John_Morris]

@A. So

Lucky me. Got to taste this recently (double blind too).

Served double blind. Garbage. A laughable attempt at a wine. Sweet and oaky, purple, alcohol, oak, and vanilla. Unidentifiable as to grape, but certainly identifiable as modernist American trash. (93 pts.)

The Duckhorn or the Tua Rita Redigaffi?

[A_So]

@John Morris

@A. So

Lucky me. Got to taste this recently (double blind too).

Served double blind. Garbage. A laughable attempt at a wine. Sweet and oaky, purple, alcohol, oak, and vanilla. Unidentifiable as to grape, but certainly identifiable as modernist American trash. (93 pts.)

The Duckhorn or the Tua Rita Redigaffi?

Oops. Duckhorn. Probably not much difference, really.

[GregT]

How much did the Suckling score move that Redigaffi price?

WOTY always made the price of the specific wine jump a bit. Their other scores not so much. WS was the only publication that could do that - Insignia doubled and never came back down. But for all his blather, I wonder if Suckling, or any other critic for that matter, affects the price of any wine these days.

I know there’s a lot of breathless hype in the various emails from places like Wine Library, PJs, Winex, etc, but I think their hype does more for the wines than the scores do.

[Brett_O]

Haters! Received mine from winery this week!

[lleichtman]

@Mike Evans

@lleichtman

I saw this exact wine in the Cheese Shop wine store in Williamsburg, VA for $120.

Take the bread ends and house, leave the Duckhorn.

Thanks, now I’m going to be distracted the rest of the day dreaming about eating a roast beef with cheddar and extra house on one of the benches along DOG Street.

I do love their sandwiches and bread ends with saace.

[lleichtman]

Had the regular Duckhorn Merlot from 2014 and it was quite nice with subtle dark cherries and cocoa. Not much oak and no vanilla. This seems to be associated with the Three Palms.

[M_Sai]

Don’t worry, the WS #1 effect is only temporary. Prices will start floating back down in 3-4 months. By next year there might be a very slight premium for that vintage…or not.

Has anyone paid a premium recently for the 2005 Columbia Crest Reserve Cab that was #1 in 2009??