What’s harder to make: expensive wine or cheap wine?
I love asking winemakers this question because it forces them to talk about their strengths candidly but without bragging. So many winemakers say that their twenty dollar (retail) bottle is the hardest thing in the world to make… “so many punch overs” and “so many new French oak barrels to buy” they say! What this says to me is that they believe enough in their land that they are willing to invest in it, which means that they believe something special is in the terroir or soil that they must coax it out. I admire that greatly. The luck of nature and internal personal ambition is not easy to find.
On the other hand, so many winemakers say their $10 (retail) bottles are the hardest thing to make because “You have to do all the same steps as the expensive wine, but you have to do it faster and with more volume!” To me this says to me that they believe in the blueprints and foundation of their wines. That I admire greatly- “elbow grease” is hard to come by these days.
This is why I get really geeky excited about both cheap and expensive wine. I advertised “Bonarda” grapes the other day, and a woman asked me today why she loved her $9 bottle of wine so much- getting to tell her that she loved it because “Bonarda is a grape from Italy that found its home in the sunshine of Argentina, where it never has to worry about a bad vintage and gets to showcase its pomegranate and red plum juiciness” was really the most wonderful interaction I got to have with someone this week.
She loved the wine, and I loved that she loved it!