Sip Quips

Burgundy - a generic red wine, often served from boxes or jugs; Chablis – a generic white wine, often served from boxes or jugs; Champagne - a sparkling wine, associated only with toasts at weddings, New Year’s Eve and wicked hangovers – right?. Unfortunately these names of esteemed wine growing regions have taken on a life of their own and their actual meanings have been all but forgotten.

Don’t look for Burgundy and Chablis in the bulk wine aisle. Instead look in the French wine section for some of the finest examples of Pinot Noir coming from Burgundy and elegant, minerally Chardonnays coming from Chablis. Granted I think the vintners of Champagne have gone a bit too far with their countless lawsuits against wineries the world over, but at its heart I do support their claim that only they should be allowed to call their wines Champagne. I’m sure that the winemakers of Burgundy, Chablis, and Champagne would love to remove the association their regions have had with low-quality plonk since EJ Gallo first made a Hearty Red Burgundy.

These are not the only terms to fall victim to the American marketing machine. Reserve is a term given to a specific wine to imply that is of a higher quality than usual, or a wine that has been aged before being sold, or both, or at least that is what it traditionally meant. In parts of Europe the term reserve/reserva/riserva actually still holds water, due in large part to the governmental restrictions associated with the term.

In America there is no such restriction, and therefore every label of KJ Chard is labeled as “Vintners Reserve,” a wine obviously extremely special as exemplified by its ubiquitous presence at the end-cap of every other aisle in your liquor superstore. Kendall Jackson actually had to adopt the term “Grand Reserve” to indicate a true reserve wine.

Old Vines is another term that holds little to no weight. It is commonly associated with vines older than forty years, but since there is no legal definition I could easily label a wines as “old vines” when in fact the vines were a mere ten years old, or I could use the term to indicate a certain characteristic of the wine. The same is true in France where “vieilles vignes” has no legally agreed upon definition, or even any generally agreed upon definition. 

How can you tell if you should pay extra for that bottle of “reserve” wine? In Spain, Italy and Portugal there are specific laws governing the use of the term on wine labels, so you know there is something different about the reserve bottle versus the regular bottling. In the US, generally, the more reputable the producer, the more likely the term “reserve” has a genuine meaning. You can also look for regular bottling of the same wine. If there are two different bottlings, it’s likely that there is something special about your reserve wine. 

Marketing is marketing, and wineries will always be trying to sell you something. With a little knowledge on your part, you can make sure they’re not selling you a load of bull.

Why is it that certain bottles cost $10 while others go for upwards of $100? Is there really that much difference in the bottle? In truth, often there’s not as much difference as the winery would like you to think there is.

A wine’s base price is derived from cost of production. This factors include the cost of the grapes,  cost of labor, not to mention the cost of materials – barrels, bottles, equipment and the facility.

Grapes can range from $1K to $10K an acre. Figure there are approximately 4000 bottles produced from 1 acre so grapes contribute anywhere from 25 cents to $2.50 to the bottle cost. More expensive wines require more labor at every stage of the game – in the vineyard, during fermentation, and during barrel aging so labor costs vary significantly.

American oak barrels cost about $400 while French oak barrels are around $800 new. If you figure there are 300 bottles in each barrel of wine you are paying for $1.30 – $2.70 per bottle for the oak aging. Bottles range from 50 cents to $2 depending on weight and shape. Corks can range from 10 cents to a dollar. Boxes can range from 10 cents to $1 per bottle. Every choice a winemaker makes affects the perceived quality and in turn the projected price tag of a bottle.

The simple perception of quality changes the price significantly. If a winemaker wants to be known for making the best Napa Cab he certainly isn’t going to charge $10 a bottle for it. No one would believe that it was the best around at that price. However just by adding a zero to the price tag, the consumer assumes the bottle to hold a higher quality product.

On top of production costs, and perception factors both the distributor and the retailer want to get their share of the profit. If you are paying $50 in the store, you can assume that the bottle left the winery at around $25-30. But it doesn’t get any better if you go direct to the winery. Retailers stay in business by offering the wine at a lower price than you can find it at the winery. You pay for the winery experience, not just the wine, when you buy at the winery.

Of course scarcity factors in significantly. That nasty old law of supply and demand – when supply is low and demand is high you can ask whatever price the market will bear. Think about the most expensive bottles out there. They are very rare – either old or very limited in production.

Then come the reviews. I hate to think of how often I have found a great bottle in the $10-15 range only to have the price shoot up to over $20 when it gets a stellar review in Wine Publication X. The other way to affect the supply and demand curve is to increase demand, and a killer rating or other prestigious accolade inevitably does that.

You need only be concerned with yourself. Like art, a wine is only worth what you would pay for it. Find bottles you enjoy in the price range you’re comfortable with and that’s how you determine good value.

I think we all spent a few hours in front of the tv yesterday. Whether you are a football fan, married to a football fan (guilty), or a guest at one of the countless Super Bowl parties – we all saw the big game yesterday. In all of the hype and all of the millions (or billions, not really sure) that were spent on advertising to a nation wide audience, wine had a marked absence. Sure liquor stores ran Super Bowl specials on Kendall Jackson, but I did not see a single ad for wine during the three and a half hours people spent glued to the tv and not fast forwarding through the commercials.

Somewhere along the line someone decided that beer, not wine, is the drink of everyman. Unfortunately with this decision it was also decided that wine was fancy, sophisticated and required a trained and specialized palate. So now wine is the noble beverage of the upper crust and beer is what everyone drinks and therefore what you see advertised during the Super Bowl.

Now that is just a load of bs! Wine has no higher status than beer – they are both just alcoholic beverages, plain and simple. There are good wines and bad wines just as there are good beers and bad beers. Much to the chagrin of winemakers, I would say beer is harder to make and requires more skill to make than wine. Regardless, it is just marketing that has set wine out of the reach of everyman, and smart wineries would step off this ridiculous pedestal to sit down on the couch and relax with the rest of us on Super Bowl Sunday.