I had an interesting couple of wine days where I shared with friends fairly pricey bottles with top-level provenance from highly regarded vintages. No. 1 was a single-site Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from the 2012 vintage. No. 2 was a 2010 Mount Eden Vineyards Estate Chardonnay from the Santa Cruz Mountains. (Full disclosure, the latter is my neighbor when I’m in Saratoga.)
This is a cautionary tale of paying good money for bad wine. One of those wines was all that and a bag of chips and the other just a smelly ol’ bag of chips.
Yes, the unnamed wine was the culprit and my neighbor, Mount Eden proprietor and winemaker extraordinaire, Jeffery Patterson, over-delivered as always even at the price.
Yes, bad wine tales happen far too often, even to the knowledgeable. The culprit was a version of the old bait and switch. In the wine world, there are a few main reasons why this happens, with corporate takeover being the most common. Not far behind is the hubris of new, small winery owners, which often leads to a change in fruit sources, winemaking philosophy, techniques and resources, as well as changes of the actual practicing winemakers — with the new owners often displaying their own so-called brilliance in that role.
That is exactly what happened here. The Willamette Valley $70 swill had been a favorite of mine in previous years. However, unbeknownst to me, the owners of a few years decided they were going to create more magnificence with their winemaking prowess. As a negative premium, when the owners unceremoniously dismissed the real talent, his many friends in the region decided to terminate their on-a-handshake fruit contracts with said winery — a well-deserved reverse dismissal if ever there was.
In many cases, wine is a commodity that is produced and sold by bean counters and egoists and as such is subject to vagaries that are difficult to account for. When we are spending maybe $25 or less or aren’t that concerned with quality, it may be no big deal. But, when we are spending some real moolah, really into wine or purchasing wine as part of a business, it certainly is a big deal.
So here’s a few tips to apply when it really matters:
- A dedicated wine seller is your absolute best bet because he or she will have vetted their wines and can give you the skinny.
- Read the label because vineyard source, vintage, production level and winemaker all make a difference.
- If it really, really matters, perform further research. A quick Internet search will often reveal specifics about pertinent factors.
Cheers and enjoy your wine life.
