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By Manos Angelakis
A Momentous Anniversary
May 24, 1976 was a date that shook the French wine world. On that date, two Napa Valley wineries took top honors at a blind tasting in Paris, over several hand picked Burgundy and Bordeaux wines. A 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montalena, and a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, were the indisputable winners at the tasting in the Parisian wine store of British merchant Steven Spurrier. The results of that tasting firmly established California’s credentials as a producer of wines on a footing equal to the top French producers. On that date, the product of California’s winemaking had come of age.
Fast forward 30 years, and France is no longer the center of the wine world. Yes, they still make great wines; there is no doubt about that. However, there are great wines being created in other areas as well; not only California, where unfortunately many producers have succumbed to Parkerizing their wines in search of better sales and higher prices generated by a high Parker Jr. rating, but also Italy, Spain, Chile and Australia. Wines from these producing countries can be just as luscious, beautifully tasting, and desirable as the best French bottles and at prices often half-or-less than a high-end French product of equivalent quality.
I do not mind paying for good food or good wine. However, I do not want to be taken advantage by winemakers, wine sellers, or chefs that think that they can raise their prices to obscene heights simply because their product is deemed so desirable that they believe that purchasers will pay anything they ask. Paying extremely high prices for a great château is nothing more than an exercise in conspicuous consumption on the part of some buyers and inflated ego on the part of some producers. It is for those insecure individuals that wish to impress others with their largesse, that certain French wineries inflate their prices. At a recent vintner’s lunch that I and a number of other wine writers attended, the conversation turned to overpriced wines. We all agreed that there is no reason to pay the current price for Château d’Yquem for example (2001 vintage, at £2,500 per case), when there is another château nearby that makes wines as great and sophisticated as d’Yquem, at less than a fifth of the price. I was asked not to mention the name of the château, for fear that the price of its product will shoot to the stratosphere, when consumers realize that there is actually very little difference between the products of both wineries. Additionally, I believe that a good TBA or Icewine Riesling from one of the producers sharing the Berncasteler Doctor or Badstube vineyards in Germany, is as good as the d’ Yquem Sauternes anytime, and even these top German vintners do not attempt to charge the prices the French do.
After all, it is only fermented grape juice.
© June 2006 The Oenophile Blog. All rights reserved.
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