My $100 bottle of wine

[Brian_Tuite]

@john holdredge

@Nolan E

REAL winemakers might have a <15 year old Toyota or Honda. Might.

.

Keeping it real. 15 years (plus optional body damage).

You should see Paul Gordon’s Toyota Tundra. A dent on every panel and the front license plate hangs by a single loose screw.

[Brian_Tuite]

@J.Johnston

That makes a lot of sense. You hit on something that makes this topic interesting to me. You say “pricing isn’t arbitrary.” From a consumer’s perspective, it often feels arbitrary when confronted with two (relatively) comparable bottles of wine from the same appellation, same vintage, same variety and (occasionally) even the same vineyard with dramatically different prices. If this were a normal market – and I recognize that it is not – the “low price leader” should be able to sell everything it produces in such a situation. Yet, as you note, the opposite often seems to be the case, with producers who have lowered their price having “devalued their brand” and, paradoxically, selling less than the producers who keep their prices higher.

A lot of times there is more to it than that. Often the more expensive wine holds it’s price because it’s better than the cheaper version. With wine you can have two wines, same vintage, same vineyard, same block of fruit. TRB makes one and I make the other. His wine is going to sell and mine won’t. Or one winemaker is hands on and one isn’t. The hands on guy notices VA rising while the other guy went on vacation when his wines were put to barrel and didn’t leave the cellar rats instructions to test the wines. His VA goes off the charts and maybe some of his fermentations don’t go completely dry. Same vineyard, same clone, same block. Same wine? Same price? The guy who has to do VA filtration has an increase in costs over the guy who caught it before it hot out of hand.

[Scott_Brunson]

@Michael S. Monie

Video: The Cost And Profit Breakdown of $150 Cab. - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

One of my favorite posts of all time!

[Al_Osterheld]

@Neal.Mollen

@Al Osterheld

There are also startup costs

-Al

Like paying your lawyers, which should really be the first thing you pay for. Obviously.

Better to give them a percentage of the profits.

-Al

[Al_Osterheld]

Frankly, I don’t care how much it costs to make a wine in the Napa Valley.

I completely agree, Howard. Whether the owner is selling at a loss or making a killing is pretty much irrelevant to me or to the market in general. But that wasn’t the attitude behind the original article, which I think was both wrong on details and its underlying perspective.

FWIW, I rarely buy Napa Cabernet and am not buying high end Napa Cabs at all. The value proposition isn’t there for me both because of the evolution of the pricing, but also because the way the style shifted to justify the pricing through high scores for being “wow” wines. But, there seem to be plenty of consumers who like the wines and are willing to pay the prices, so more power to the producers and their fans.

-Al