DOES PRICE EQUAL QUALITY?

NO!!!  Recently a person asked me how wineries price their wines.  The question is timely because it is the beginning of the year and many of us will consume bottles of wine that cost less than the wines which we consumed previously.

How wineries price their wines has nothing to do with an industry formula.  There are as many ideas on pricing wines as there are opinions on how to make different wines.  Important factors for wineries to consider are supply and demand, location, longevity, accolades, and the cost of the grapes.  The nebulous trait called ego is real factor.

Starting at the top, if you are a First Growth or Petrus from Bordeaux, or a red or white Burgundy from Romanee Conti, your prices are hundreds of dollars a bottle upon release.  If you are a longtime Cabernet producer from Napa, and your wine has been number one for the Wine Spectator Top 100 and consistently is in the top 25 year to year, then you will be charging hundreds of dollars a bottle.  If you are one of the half dozen cult Cabernets from Napa, then you will be charging several hundred to at least a thousand dollars a bottle upon release.

The next step down encompasses many Napa wineries, some wineries in Piemonte and Tuscany, and some other wineries from France, Spain, Australia, Chile, and Argentina who charge from one to three hundred dollars a bottle.  These wineries have been around for 15 to several hundred years and in recent history they have produced consistently high quality wines.

The next step down would include many wineries from the North Coast, and a few from the South Central Coast in California, South America, and Europe that charge from 50 to 100 dollars a bottle. 

Going down another step are wineries in less popular or newer areas such as the foothills in California, Paso Robles, Lodi, Livermore, Monterey, Rancho Cucamonga,  the rest of the United States, Southern Italy, Sicily, other parts of Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, you will find wines from 10 to 75 dollars a bottle.

You would have an easier time accepting a 50 dollar wine in Napa versus a 50 dollar wine in Lodi.  We seem to know that in Napa the land and grapes cost a lot more than in Lodi, plus Napa has been producing fine wines for at least 150 years as opposed to maybe 15 years in Lodi.  Reputation counts for a lot.  There are a few 50 dollar wines in Lodi, but they are more likely to be purchased right here in Lodi.

The few wines that seem expensive from newer wine growing areas come from a proven winery.  A new winery could not justify such a leap.  As a distributor, I interview new winery owners periodically to discuss whether or not that I would carry their wines.  More times than not, their suggested retail prices are way too high and I choose not to represent them.  I explain that my best selling wines are priced in the teens. 

Some of these new winery owners want 20 to 30 dollars a bottle.  Hardly anyone will pay that much for a new, unknown brand whose quality is mediocre.  Those people may entice acquaintances to buy their wines only to be drastically discounted after several months because of lax sales.  Here lies the nebulous world of ego.

You are justified to ask if a certain bottle of wine is really worth its price.  There are a lot of honest, educated salespeople but there are more uneducated pretentious salespeople.  Find the honest ones and learn as much as you can from books, magazines, newspapers, and visiting wineries.

Some people buy based on their economic means and peer acceptance.  Others buy based on pure value. There are many good wines priced as low as five dollars if you are willing to shop.  Many fifteen dollar bottles from Lodi are as good as fifty or a hundred dollars a bottle from Napa.  As a winegrowing area grows, though, so do their prices.  Lodi would be considered the new kid on the block, but we have a lot of talent and serious people in the grape and wine business.  Being the new kid, we are also the best value.

Leonard Cicerello