Rich People Are Ruining Wine …and Napa Valley is forever changing as a result (The Atlantic)

[Anton_D]

@ky1em!ttskus

@Mattstolz

@Anton D

Rich people ruined Burgundy, First growth Bordeaux, top end Rhone, etc…

Hey, I’m just glad to see an article where millennials arent blamed for ruining something.

Word!

[mattcitrang]

@Mattstolz

@Anton D

Rich people ruined Burgundy, First growth Bordeaux, top end Rhone, etc…

Hey, I’m just glad to see an article where millennials arent blamed for ruining something.

Wait, give them a chance. They still haven’t emerged from their parents basement.

[Merrill_Lindquist]

@mattcitrang

@Mattstolz

@Anton D

Rich people ruined Burgundy, First growth Bordeaux, top end Rhone, etc…

Hey, I’m just glad to see an article where millennials arent blamed for ruining something.

Wait, give them a chance. They still haven’t emerged from their parents basement.

Wearing what?

[R_Holliday]

Before I read past the first post, my first thought was, how many old growth forests exist in Bordeaux?

[R_Holliday]

@andy velebil

First of all that article really has nothing to do with Parker. It’s simply a reference. What it deals with is what many people who have lived there for a long time privately express. The place has turned into a playground for the rich and famous, each one trying to out due the other. When I started going up that way 20-ish years ago it was still pretty remote and a full on agricultural community. Hotels and restaurants were cheap and the wines affordable. I don’t remember ever paying a tasting fee back then. Now some places charge over $100 for a fee and you don’t get that waived even if you buy something.

Now it’s super expensive and just about every Cabernet wine is $80-120+ bottle. Heck you can hardly even get a simple Rose or basic white for less than $40 now. Rich people buy property just to say they have a winery, paying someone else to do all the work so they don’t get their hands dirty. Sure they may “help out” at times, but they aren’t doing any hands on day to day work.

Yes a generalization, but sadly that is what Napa has become. I used to go up a couple times a year, now maybe once, simply as it used to be affordable, staying, buying some wines from places I visited. Now a few days up there ends up costing many thousands of dollars. And I’m lucky as a friend and his fiancee live there so I can stay with them which saves a lot. But still the cost of visiting producers and buying $100+ wines adds up quick (Thank you to those who’ve been there a long time and stayed reasonably priced).

This isn’t solely a Napa issue. As wine has gained in popularity it’s happening in other regions around the world as well. So I have to say that article is pretty spot on.

Then I read this and wondered what Bordeaux was like 20 years ago compared to today and chuckled a bit

[R_Holliday]

And now that I’ve read through it all, I tend to agree with the people who laugh at those who take umbrage with change and lash out at “them” whoever “them” might be (Parker, the rich, etc)
I’m just a small time rube who started collecting and drinking wine around 2000. I probably spend more than seems wise on wine,drink more than seems wise, but I’m happy. Did Parker teach me to like his style of wine and ruin me as a potential counter culture wine snob? No. But I did find I could use his palate as a rough idea of what I might like. So many haters for expensive wines, more haters for fruit bombs, there seems to be haters for anything you can identify as a subset. It’s ridiculous. How wonderful for you that you’ve found a $10 wine that you love. I haven’t. Maybe it’s because I’m obtuse, have a shitty palate, or just don’t get how amazing shit wine tastes. Who knows?
I love first growth Bordeaux from the '80s
I love '95, '96, '97 cabs like Beringer PR, Dalla Valle, Diamond Creek, and Heitz Martha’s Vinyard. I don’t consider any of them fruit bombs but Parker is a pretty good weather vane for them. I spend too much on wines like Checkerboard, Cardinale, and Scarecrow (especially Checkerboard) because I like them too. My every day drinker that I buy in bulk? Carlisle Zin.
Am I contributing to buyers being shut out of good wine the way the Chinese have shut me out of first growths? The clear cutting of Napa’s old growth forests? Your ability to walk down 29 and buy your kids 50 cent ice cream cones?
Maybe. Who cares? Wtf do you know that’s stayed the same for 50yrs?

[Rory_K]

It’s delightful how many people here bristle at any suggestion of anti-rich sentiment and take up arms, writing off any subsidiary point…
Forests and locals need a helluva lot more defending than people with lots of money, yet how many of the .001% have I met who feel oppressed or under-siege? Most of them.

Also, am I missing something? Parker doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the article…

[R_Holliday]

@Rory K.

It’s delightful how many people here bristle at any suggestion of anti-rich sentiment and take up arms, writing off any subsidiary point…
Forests and locals need a helluva lot more defending than people with lots of money, yet how many of the .001% have I met who feel oppressed or under-siege? Most of them.

Also, am I missing something? Parker doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the article…

Maybe because in addition to “the rich” propping up everyone’s (your) way of life, they’re blamed for every problem that really has zero to do with them.
“Boo hoo, I chose to take a job earning $50k a year! I can’t afford a $300 bottle of wine. Those damned rich!”

[Mattstolz]

@mattcitrang

@Mattstolz

@Anton D

Rich people ruined Burgundy, First growth Bordeaux, top end Rhone, etc…

Hey, I’m just glad to see an article where millennials arent blamed for ruining something.

Wait, give them a chance. They still haven’t emerged from their parents basement.

I bought too much avocado toast to buy a winery.

[Rob_Isaacs]

Famous region gets more expensive and people with money want to live there, that is “surprising”… If it makes you mad stop buying the wines, there is so much great wine out there today that is easier to find than ever. Talking about how it used to be is a losing battle.

[Anton_D]

@R Holliday

@Rory K.

It’s delightful how many people here bristle at any suggestion of anti-rich sentiment and take up arms, writing off any subsidiary point…
Forests and locals need a helluva lot more defending than people with lots of money, yet how many of the .001% have I met who feel oppressed or under-siege? Most of them.

Also, am I missing something? Parker doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the article…

Maybe because in addition to “the rich” propping up everyone’s (your) way of life, they’re blamed for every problem that really has zero to do with them.
“Boo hoo, I chose to take a job earning $50k a year! I can’t afford a $300 bottle of wine. Those damned rich!”

Ask around. Most people in this country will tell you that it’s poor people who are the problem. Those damned poor people!

“Raising minimum wage will buy poor people 5 bottles of Two Buck Chuck every hour! Who the Hell thinks poor people deserve 5 bottles of wine an hour? Do you want poor people drinking 5 bottles of wine every hour? I know I don’t! It will cause the Second Coming and the Rapture and the Tribulations. Just say no to 5 bottles of wine per hour for poor people.”

[R_Holliday]

@Anton D

@R Holliday

@Rory K.

It’s delightful how many people here bristle at any suggestion of anti-rich sentiment and take up arms, writing off any subsidiary point…
Forests and locals need a helluva lot more defending than people with lots of money, yet how many of the .001% have I met who feel oppressed or under-siege? Most of them.

Also, am I missing something? Parker doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the article…

Maybe because in addition to “the rich” propping up everyone’s (your) way of life, they’re blamed for every problem that really has zero to do with them.
“Boo hoo, I chose to take a job earning $50k a year! I can’t afford a $300 bottle of wine. Those damned rich!”

Ask around. Most people in this country will tell you that it’s poor people who are the problem. Those damned poor people!

“Raising minimum wage will buy poor people 5 bottles of Two Buck Chuck every hour! Who the Hell thinks poor people deserve 5 bottles of wine an hour? Do you want poor people drinking 5 bottles of wine every hour? I know I don’t! It will cause the Second Coming and the Rapture and the Tribulations. Just say no to 5 bottles of wine per hour for poor people.”

Why haven’t you opened a business and put your money where you mouth is.
I mean its so simple to do.
Why haven’t you done it and paid your employees a living wage?
Serious question…

[Anton_D]

Hmm, because I have, maybe?

PM me if you would like to share insults, you charmer. Champion of the untrodden.

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

Ron, please post your curriculum vitae for board scrutiny.

Thanks

[Mattstolz]

hey now, I’m following this thread for jokes about Trump wine, not for the board to tear itself apart!

[R_Holliday]

I enjoy drinking wine and poking at whiners, Bill.
You?

[ky1em1ttskus]

@R Holliday

I enjoy drinking wine and poking at whiners, Bill.
You?

I’m pretty sure Bill’s is identical.

[R_Holliday]

@Anton D

Hmm, because I have, maybe?

PM me if you would like to share insults, you charmer. Champion of the untrodden.

I’m not here to insult, Anton. If you’re doing it, tell me how and where. I’d love to support it.

[Chris_Seiber]

As Ernie Harwell once said, you can choose to live life looking through the windshield, or through the rear view mirror.

If you want quieter wine country, low tasting fees, cheaper wine, less spoof, look around, there are a dozen good options. Why get mad that Napa isn’t what it was 25 years ago?

[Howard_Cooper]

@andy velebil

@Howard Cooper

I rather like it when the rich people spend big money on the fruit bomb California wines. Leaves the good stuff for the rest of us.

I wish that was the case. The issue is when everyone else is selling theirs for $100 and yours is $40 people assume yours sucks. So guess what, you raise your prices to stay with the Jones. It’s a vicious cycle.

Contrary examples: Ridge, Montelena, Stony Hill, Heitz.