WINE Goodbye, Good Buy

This column may be facing extinction. Wine prices have become so prohibitive in the past year that, if the trend continues, no one will be able to afford to drink wine and I’ll be forced to turn to a more accessible subject, like disco.

Of course (I hope), I exaggerate. Still, the fact persists that wines – at least the more interesting ones – have never been so expensive or so scarce. In just the past 18 months, the cost of certain imported and domestic bottlings has doubled, and many wines that used to be readily available are now being parceled out like seats on a lifeboat. White burgundies such as Meursault or Pouilly-Fuissé were selling for $7 a year ago; today, you’re lucky to pay $12-$17. Le Mon-trachet, the most famous of all, has gone from $30 to $75 in just six months. California premium varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardon-nay are now in the $10-to-$20 range, making them no longer bargains against their French counterparts. I even saw Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1975 go from $29 to $60 in one day. Unless one is an oilman or a dope dealer, the opportunity to drink a truly special bottle of wine has become remote.

There are a few apparent causes of this spiral: First and most obvious, wine has never been more popular. More specifically, the demand for quality, “name” wines has increased dramatically. We Americans have long been spoiled by the relatively low cost and easy availability of the most famous wines, which, we are now realizing, are barely five percent of the world’s production. But now Europeans – particularly (and surprisingly) the French – have “discovered” their own illustrious products and are no longer content with a steady diet of vin ordinaire. The 1979 wine market is a seller’s paradise: Unless Americans are willing to pay the price, we’ll have to switch from paté de foie gras to Spam.

And pay we do. In fact, prices wouldn’t be rising so drastically if no one were buying. The old principle that people buy when prices rise, not when they go down, is holding fast Gust look at the housing market). The presence of nouveau riche money, especially Japanese and Arab, further aggravates the situation. In fact, despite their religion, which forbids drinking, the Arabs probably would, if allowed, buy all the great vineyards in the world.

Wine prices are also vulnerable to many other influences, though it’s unwise to simplify matters by dwelling on any one of them. Weather, for example, has always affected prices, but no real disasters have occurred in European vintages since 1968, so that doesn’t explain much. In fact, as far as weather is concerned, there’s a kind of Catch-22: If a vintage’s quality and quantity are bad, prices rise because existing stocks of good wine become more valuable; if a vintage is successful, prices also go up because of the publicity and resultant demand that always accompany a good year. We can’t win. Other factors, such as fluctuating monetary values and rising costs of fuel and materials, also play a part in determining wine prices, but perhaps the best way to view matters is to divide the situation into regions affected:

Burgundy. Currently the most publicized of French wines, Burgundy, white and red (including Beaujolais and Chablis), is approaching the apex of cost insanity, at a time when its general quality has never been lower. Simple commune wines of the 1976 vintage are at least $12; domaine-bottlings will soon cost $20-$25. Writing in The Friends of Wine magazine, French producer-shipper Louis Latour opined, “Very high prices will be absurd if 1978 is very successful, but these high prices will be justified if 1978 is very cold.” Well, enter absurdity: Prices for the highly acclaimed ’78’s are coming in at megabuck levels. High Burgundy prices must first be blamed on the grower. One British merchant says, “Several years ago, when traveling through Burgundy, one would see the small growers all driving Renaults and Volkswagens; now I see the same people in BMW’s and Mercedes. Scandalous. Appalling.” Greed, vogue, and demand all contribute to the price of Burgundy; Americans are ripe for abuse if they continue to pay for overrated wines such as Pouilly-Fuissé.

Bordeaux. This wine, which usually sets the tone for prices in the trade, has also gone to extraordinary prices, but for different reasons. Here, most chateau owners appear to be doing their best to be reasonable, but the shippers who buy and distribute their wines to the world are speculating. One is reminded of “The Crash of ’73,” when shippers were stuck with warehouses full of wine that had to be sold at a loss when the public balked at paying the inflated prices they were asking. Today, things are different; no such surplus exists. If anything, a shortage (real or imagined) of good bordeaux is causing panic buying at what seems like artificially high prices. Even minor chateaux that have never cost over $5 on the shelf are now being tagged at $13. Much of this silly behavior has been caused by the publicity over the 1975 vintage, admittedly a great year, but priced at no relation to reason. Who wants to pay anywhere from $15 to $60 a bottle for a wine that may not be ready to drink for 20 years? Apparently many people, because supplies of this vintage are already getting sparse. Luckily, the ’76 Bordeaux are only a degree less fine than the ’75’s and will be drinkable sooner; they have escaped the hype and are being sold at quite realistic prices.

Champagne. The price increases for this already-expensive wine are generally justified, considering the difficulty with which it’s made. But the luxury bottles – Dom Pérignon, Roederer’s Cristal, et al. – are a different story. They seem to disappear from the market (thereby increasing demand) and reappear with suspicious regularity these days, each time with a new, highly-inflated price tag. Prestige-seekers, beware.

Germany. Peter Sichel of Blue Nun fame was in town recently and summed up the situation well by saying, “Wine is actually just another grocery item; it has gone up in cost just like everything else at the store. In Germany, 1 feel like we have done our best to pass on the rising cost to the consumer only when necessary.” Unlike the French, whose price philosophy seems to have been dreamed up by the ladies of Pigalle, the Germans have allowed logic to prevail in their marketing structure. If the dollar strengthens itself against the mark and 1979 brings a good, large crop, watch for prices actually to go down.

Italy. With plenty of wine to sell, the Italians are in no position to gouge anyone. Since they must continually compete for their place in the market, they have kept their prices remarkably stable. Italian wines are one of the few good buys left.

California. Classier bottlings from the “boutique” wineries are now as high as their import equivalents. The demand for better California wines has made them probably the most difficult bottles to obtain – with resultant high prices. Theories of pricing vary from producer to producer. One bad trend was related to me by local merchant Arch Cockerell: “I recently visited California and at one winery – Conn Creek – I was told that since Macon white was $7 a bottle now, they were going to price their Chardonnay the same, even if it is only a $4 bottle of wine. That’s their method of price structure.” Fortunately, men like John Par-ducci and Robert Mondavi ignore such silly notions and price their wines realistically.

What’s to be done about all this? A boycott is unlikely, since wine appears to be more essential to the pursuit of hedonism than ever before. Surely, the tendency of Americans to consume everything in mass quantities is detrimental; this Cone-head Mentality helped cause the present grim situation in the first place. What we are faced with is Spurr’s Theory of Inevitability: We must realize that the days of drinking glorious bottles of wine on a whim are gone; yesterday’s Puligny-Montrachet must now become Folonari Soave. Prices will settle someday, but never again will Chateau Margaux be $10. Wines of the luxury category will become the exclusive domain of the very rich. We must re-think our drinking habits and discover alternatives that offer a good wine experience for the money. Look for this as a subject of a future column, that is, if I’m not out having to ponder the aesthetics of Papagayo and DaVinci instead.



Last month, I commented on the volatile issue of wine fraud. Since then, there have been some new developments, From an April 26 UPI news release, datelined Paris: “A Burgun-dian vintner has been accused of shipping 70,000 bottles of elegantly labeled cheap wine to the United States in a scandal reminiscent of one in Bordeaux five years ago. The government agency for the control of wines and liquors has charged that Bernard Grivelet put prestigious Burgundy labels such as Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny on cheap table wine. . . .The amount of Burgundy involved in the scandal is worth up to $1.25 million . . . .But the main culprit in the latest case says the Burgundy scandal could be a lot worse than it appears.”

Grivelet (a respected shipper, a least until now) has been in the Texas wine market for many years. But apparently, in their eagerness to expose a scandal, the press has misinterpreted the situation. According to Yale Sager in Chicago, the Midwestern agent for the wine firm, Bernard Grivelet has been involved in a longstanding feud with the French government over limitations on wine production. The wine control board in turn brought charges that Grivelet has been guilty of over-production, that is, stretching the quantity allowed by law from certain vineyards. Over-production, rumor has it, is a common venial sin in Burgundy that has escaped scrutiny until the irascible Grivelet began annoying the authorities with lawsuits and demands. The possible ripple effect that may involve other prestigious firms is the real issue here. Apparently, the Grivelet wines that are being sold in Texas are not fraudulent, though at least one Dallas store, Marty’s, has temporarily pulled them from the shelves.

Whatever the outcome, Grivelet’s reputation will suffer.