I was flipping through this for some already forgotten reason.
Can somebody explain to me why the prices for Napa Petite Verdot and Cabernet Franc rival Cab Sauv and dwarf all else?
Is it especially good? Is it just novel and scarce? Is it there not enough of it to satisfy the places that are committed to popular Meritage’s and so they stick it to them? What?
That’s what Juan and Wendell told me years ago - that they were paying through the nose for their PV.
I always felt like the PV was Realm’s special signature.
I guess it must be underplanted relative to the oceans of CS in NorCal?
Maybe it’s difficult for risk-averse vineyard owners to commit to ripping out established revenue-producing CS acreage and replanting in something trendier like PV or CF?
And even if they do take the plunge, it’ll be three to four years before they get good crops, and several more seasons after that before they start to understand the varietal/terroir relationship?
I’d guess it’s partly the law of averages. With 65 times as much cabernet, the average quality (and hence price per ton) is bound to be lower.
However, that doesn’t explain why syrah and viognier, also produced in small quantities, get more modest prices. So there are plainly some other factors at work. What were PV and CF harvest volumes like this year relative to past years?
Maybe it’s because they are blocks of existing CS vineyards and the land price, farming costs etc are equal. But most obviously, Because the market bears it.
My understanding is that neither variety are planted extensively and numerous winemakers want what’s available for blending.
ETA: I actually had the very same question about prices when I first started working out here in Napa five years ago; the above was the response I received, which I’ve heard repeated several times since.
L’Aventure does a lot of work with Petit Verdot, but I guess they grow their own in Paso Robles:
I don’t believe the 2014 Crush Report has been released, so looking at this report for 2013:
Less than 3 tons of Petit Verdot! That is pretty scarce, and there are wineries who want to put just that tiny percent into their Cabernet (or Bordeaux blend). That’s enough to create the price you see there. I believe a year or two ago, PV pricing went beyond Cabernet Sauvignon. Just looking at the tonnage of Cab Franc vs. Cab Sauv, again you have your answer.
But Cab is king here in Napa Valley, pretty much any way you look at it.
Very little PV and CF was replanted in the 80s and early 90s after phylloxera. The cash crop was Cab.
In fact, until the last 5 years, most of the good Franc and PV that was available was vines from pre-phyloxxera. Since Dalla Valle showed what could be done with CF, a lot more of it is going in around the same area (Oakville East and Pritchard Hill.) Most of the rest of the quality Franc is in St Helena, where it is warm enough to ripen it fully.
Quality PV is still really hard to find.So the prices for both are up there.
Piper - correction - Frediani (next to me) has a huge planting of CF. I am going to say 8 rows down from me and extending 50 rows by a lot of vines deep.
That makes no sense. A quick look at only stagecoach shows about 13 acres of PV. I don’t know how the Crush Report is made, is it possible that stagecoach isn’t counted?
I think you meant less than 3,000 tons… 