finalanalysis

I have a financial interest in this, but you should still come:

This Monday, April 20th, Milla Handley, owner and winemaker of Handley Cellars in Anderson Valley, California will team up with Chef Billy Allin of Cakes & Ale in Decatur for a 5-course wine pairing menu featuring Handley’s Anderson Valley wines. Seating is limited to 30 people and the price is $55, including food & wine, tax and gratuity not included. Here’s the menu that Billy provided me:

* 2003 Sparkling Rose
o Deviled Eggs
o Gougeres with country ham & greens
o Arancini
o Radish with sea salt & butter
* 2007 Pinot Gris
o Clams with white beans, saffron, tomato & salami
* 2006 Chardonnay
o Hand cut green pasta with rabbit, ricotta & breadcrumbs
* 2006 Pinot Noir
o Roasted pork tenderloin with Israeli couscous, charred leeks, morel mushrooms & pinot noir-juniper sauce
* 2006 Late Harvest Riesling
o Strawberry mille-feiulles

Milla doesn’t visit Atlanta very often, so this is pretty cool (to me, at least). Call Cakes & Ale (254 W Ponce de Leon Ave Decatur, GA 30030) at (404) 377-7994 for availability.

After multiple successive years where new and unknown wines capture higher and higher prices on initial release, I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me: “The economic downturn has brought sales of ultra premium Napa Valley reds ‘to a screeching halt,’ according to Dan Isenhart, wine buyer at Amazing Grapes Wine Store in Los Angeles.”

Ok it doesn’t surprise me. Especially since 2008 Latour is selling for half what the 2007 did on release.

It is never to early to start training the next generation:

• The Playmobil Wine Bar

Thanks to John L. for the link.

This is eminently predictable:

“Paul-François Vranken, head of Vranken-Pommery Monopole – one of the three biggest Champagne houses – has called for yields in Champagne to be cut to between 7,500 and 9,600kg per hectare…This would represent a 50% reduction in production compared with the two previous harvests of 2007 and 2008.”

Maybe I’m just feeling cranky, but why doesn’t Decanter point out the the effect of this will be an increase in prices? Y’know, because Champagne’s main problem is that is isn’t expensive enough…

Via Dr. Vino, Revue de vin France offers the shocking news that it costs less to produce a bottle of wine than you pay for it as a consumer.

As Dr. Vino points out, “there are expensive ways to make wine and there are inexpensive ways to make wine.” And sure, 4500 Euros for a bottle of Petrus that cost 30 Euros to make is a bit excessive. But what gets lost here is that the price inflation comes in no small part from the delusions of producers. For every Petrus there are a hundred “Cult” or “Garagiste” wines who have no real track record, but nonetheless feel their wines are worth a premium because of who their neighbors are, or who they have listed as “consulting winemaker”.

And of course there are the many levels of (sometimes legally mandated) middlemen who do little to bring the price of wine down. (See Tom Wark for more info on this).

It may go without saying, but as the retail price of a wine drops, so does the gap between production costs and retail price. Petrus may cost $30 to make, but that $10 bottle on your counter does not cost $0.07 to make.

7.5 Million.

6.8% of wine drinkers drive 80% of sales. That’s staggering.

If you are on a boat and it is highjacked by pirates, better have some cult wine handy.

If nothing else, this story helps answer the “who is buying all this expensive wine right now” question.