My Nine Frustrations as a Fine Wine Fan

My Nine Frustrations as a Fine Wine Fan

Bryce Sanders, President

Perceptive Business Solutions Inc.

I have been a wine fan for many years.? I have always thought “A Day without red wine is like a day without sunshine” until my doctor told me differently.

?

Being a wine fan is rewarding, but it can also be frustrating.? Here are nine things that annoy me.? (Warning:? If my facts are not exact, they should at least be close.? If they aren’t facts, then they are opinions.) ??

1.????? Bordeaux prices tend to go in only one direction – Up.? It is fair to say technology has greatly improved wine making. Weather still plays a big role.? Every year, the wine producers in Bordeaux release another vintage.? If the weather was good and yields were high, they announce a great vintage and because of unprecedented demand, prices are going up.? If the weather does not cooperate and it’s not a good year, the chateaus explain the weather was difficult and we were only able to produce a small amount of wine this year.? Therefore, prices will need to go up. The stock market moves in cycles.? Stocks go up and down.? Why not wine prices?

2.????? The 100 point scale has become the 10 (or 12) point scale.? Ribert Parker is credited with developing the 100 point rating scale for his publication, The Wine Advocate.? It was actually a 50 point scale, meaning no scores under 50 points.? Several other publications adopted a similar scoring system. Years ago, a wine with a score of 80 or 85 points still had positive qualities. Today, it is rare to see a wine scoring below 90 points.? The bottles sometimes carry circles on the label, touting a score like 91 points.? This implies all wine are of superlative quality.? When did an 85 score become bad?? Don’t any wines score under 85?? Decades ago, it was said some wine competitions were like children’s birthday parties where everyone went home with a prize.

3.????? Previous vintages can be re-evaluated.? It’s often joked that when a wine producer is asked: “What is your greatest vintage,” the answer is “the one I am currently offering for sale.”? Most vintages tend to get hype upon release.? This is either because the weather cooperated and they produced great wine, or the weather didn’t cooperate and they made good wine, just less of it.? Years later, retrospectives might be written, concluding wines from certain years did not improve or age well.? If a publication produces a vintage chart going back several decades, the clue to finding the “bad years” is the years omitted from the list.? 2013 is one example.? You bought the wine based on wine critics comments in the press.? The wine needs to age to reach its potential.? Years after your check has been cashed, the critics might say: “Upon reflection, that year was not as great as we had hoped…”

4.????? Some wines have lost their typicity to conform to a universal flavor.? Certain Bordeaux wines come with personalities.? Wines from the commune of Margaux are considered delicate.? Wines from Paulliac are considered full bodied.? Wines from St. Estephe were primarily made from the cabernet grape and were known to take a long time to reach maturity.? How long is long?? By some estimates, 25-50 years!? This made sense when considering British collectors from 100 years ago who would stock a wine cellar for future generations. Today, a wine buyer wants to buy a wine they can open within 50 minutes, not 50 years.? Modern winemaking techniques have evolved to meet this need, but lost some of the tastes and qualities associated with the region.? To meet the need of a wine that can be consumed sooner rather than later, you might lose the qualities that made the wine famous.

5.????? I cannot get the subtle aromas others do.? If you read the back of a wine label or the tasting notes in a magazine, you are led to expect a cornucopia of flavors to greet your nose when you sniff the glass.? My expression is “I don’t get the aroma of blackcurrants and cedar.”? My nose is not sensitive enough to detect the aromas and flavors others tell us are present in a specific wine.? I know there are “super tasters” out there.? Unfortunately, I am not one of them.? Wine often tastes like…wine.? It might be good wine and aged wine, but I miss out of the flavors.? This might be my problem.? I have always envied people who get this full experience.? I might get one or two flavors, but very few.

6.????? The 1970’s and ‘80’s were not the “bad old days.”? I first developed my interest in wine when I was in college.? I graduated in the mid 1970’s.? Wine tasted fine then.? There were exceptional years like 1970, 1982 and 1985.? No one was going around moaning about the low quality of wine in general, waiting for the 1990’s when technology would improve things.? You had three categories in Bordeaux:? Exceptional years, classic years and poor years. ?The British has a great expression for wines from those last one or two categories – luncheon claret.? It wasn’t that wine produced in the 1970’s and ’80’s was bad, just that wine produced in the 1990’s and beyond was considered better.? The bigger issue was the drinking of wine was simply not that popular with the general public in the 1960’s and ‘70s.

7.????? ?Alcohol levels have moved significantly higher.? The typical alcohol level of a red Bordeaux wine used to be 11% to 12%.? That is a wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.? Today, it is common to find wines at alcohol levels of 14% or even 16%.? This becomes a problem if you are planning to drive home afterwards.? My wife and I have become fans of Vinho Verde from Portugal and Rieslings from Germany.? These wines might be 9% ABV or even lower.? They are still tasty. When you host dinner parties and your guests are driving home, this is an issue.? It is why we offer a guest bedroom if anyone wants to stay over.

8.????? There seem to be no more bad vintages.? Many, many years ago, if the weather was terrible, wine chateaus would not produce vintage wine that year.? Thay might quietly sell it off in bulk.? Port, the dessert wine produced in Portugal, still works that way.? The port houses determine if they will “declare” a vintage that year.? If not, the harvest goes into other bottlings they produce.? The producers who make table wines, those we drink with meals and collect, tend to put a new vintage up for sale every year.? They might reduce the output, but no one seems to admit to bad vintages anymore. How can everything be considered great?

9.????? Fine wine has gotten too expensive.? I am a big believer wine is is agricultural product meant to be consumed with meals.? It became popular centuries ago because the local water was not safe to drink and Coca Cola had not been invented yet.? Somehow, wine became an investment for some people, an alternative asset class.? A bottle of wine contains about 25 ounces of liquid.? Silver, the precious metal, is about $26/ounce. (4/18/24)? This means an equivalent amount of silver is valued at about $650. (Yes, the ounce measurements are different.)? Is there a logic that a product meant to be consumed at the dinner table, often in one sitting, should cost $650 or more?? Most first growth Bordeaux wines sell at this price level or higher.? Higher and higher pricing takes fine wines out of reach of the wine fans who might enjoy them the most.? Those bottles and cases might sit in storage, waiting to be resold, untasted by the owner.

These might be factors that annoy me, but I still enjoy wine often.

?

Bryce Sanders is president of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc.? He provides HNW client acquisition training for the financial services industry.? His book, “Captivating the Wealthy Investor” is available on Amazon.

?