Despite the shift in the market, some producers are defiant. “I’m not dropping my price,” says Ron Wornick, owner of Seven Stones Winery in St. Helena, “and you can put that in writing.” That price is $175 a bottle, to which Wornick feels entitled, comparing his wines to other luxury goods, like fine watches and diamonds. “A hard-to-find, precious, high-end product, whether it’s from Ferrari or from a tiny vineyard in Napa, is still fine and precious,” he says.
I recently tasted the Seven Stones and Ovid side by side. Both are $175. I enjoyed the Ovid much more and will definitely stay on the list while I’ll need to consider staying on the Seven Stones list. Yet, I would not be surprised if someone else tasted them side by side and evaluated the wines differently.
Isn’t production a factor here? I think both Seven Stones and Ovid are under 400-500 case productions. Even if some people drop off the list, I’ve got to think that smaller operations like that should be able to sell out (or come close to it) in contrast to some of the other high profile, and higher production, wines mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Parker once again fails to impress me. Whenever he opens his mouth, my impression of him decreases. The article quotes Parker and notes the following:
Even wine critic and Cult Cab kingmaker Robert M. Parker has issued warnings: “Wines priced over $300 have encountered considerable resistance, with their mailing list customers dropping off, or taking much smaller allocations,” he wrote in the December issue of his widely read newsletter, the Wine Advocate.
“Sadly, far too many proprietors of high-end Napa wines are in denial, and have failed to recognize the dramatically changing parameters in the wine world of the consumer.”
Not all of Napa’s Cult Cabs are dead, of course. Wines still in the good graces of critics like Robert Parker and James Laube of the Wine Spectator are weathering the storm well, including Shrader, Screaming Eagle and Harlan, as well as the more recently anointed, such as Scarecrow, Maybach and Kapcsandy.
So in other words, if you cater to Parker (or Laube’s) palate, you can continue to charge high prices. If you make a wine which does not cater to the palate, THEN you have problems. This seems to be, once again, an opportunity lost. Parker could find a way, any way, to really be a spokesperson or a consumer advocate. Instead, he is only an advocate for himself and the wines he likes. Not to mention, it is my distinct impression that Parker plays favorites. He continues to highly rate the same “brand” wines while employing a glass ceiling for other wines.
Harlan can last longer than most “cult” wines because of production that is almost entirely taken up by mailing list and restaurants. If the restaurants continue to lose business and can’t buy, it will get passed on to us retailers at ridiculous prices, if we are willing to pay them. While we’ve been offered some of the other cult wines, Harlan has not even been on the radar.
I’m not sure how the economy is effecting the rest of the retailers and I venture a guess that Posner maintains a much different inventory of wines than we do, based somewhat on location. European wines move a little slower on the west coast than the east coast, but he has probabley felt the same thing we have, a void in sales 50-125, with an increase in wine sales under $50. The super high ends, Harlan, Colgin, Bryant at our end are still sought after by those unaffected by the economy.
Occasionally, somebody walks in here and asks if we have any cuban cigars hidden in back, (totally illegal). Not as often, we have somebody ask if we have any Harlan hidden in the back, (totally impossible).
Randy - we gots to get down to LA for guys golf w/e and smoke Cubans down there. have two different spots we can check out for Fidel cigars and maybe wrangle an invite to play Bel-Air.
I don’t. I don’t care whether he makes it or loses his shirt. It’s not personal, it’s that I get sick of people who feel entitled to anything in business and especially high end wine with jack for a track record.
Kind of a shame to read that article. Not sure if anything was taken out of context, but Ron certainly seems a little out of touch with the world around him. Even if he has no intentions of lowering prices, he could have said it in a manner which was a little less “F you if you don’t like my prices.”
I wasn’t able to pick up my allocation of the 2006 this year. I was fortunate and got the 2005 which I very much enjoyed. But I logged in and my full allocation is still available. Definitely a far cry from the 2-3 hour sell out of the 2005. You’d think that might be something to take notice of and try to not alienate potential customers.
I am on the Seven Stones list, but the last offering sold out pretty quick and I missed it. I only know Roy from these boards (and he seems like a super fella), but if this is truely the owner’s opinion, then he (the owner) can keep his damn wine.
Plenty of other wines out there for me to spend my money on, he doesn’t need mine anyhow…
I’m sure I can find one. Randy, I won’t be playing along with you, as I have enough expensive hobbies, but I know that the wine flows freely at the 19th hole!!! You can save your money there!
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