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‘Nothing decent comes out California for less than $25’
Yesterday’s post about beer’s popularity surging in relation to wine prompted a comment from a reader named Stu about the high cost of wine, ending with the declaration, “… nothing decent comes out California for less than 25 bucks.’
Do you agree?
I, for one, suspect that if I sat down and tasted 20 California wines blind — 10 that cost more than $25, 10 that cost, say, between $15 and $25, all of them selected randomly — I would end up preferring the less expensive California wines, which I believe would be less likely to be overly alcoholic, less overtly oaky, less likely to be overextracted, and overall, better-balanced wines. If — rather than tasting the 20 wines at one sitting — I instead drank the wines with dinner for 20 consecutive days, I’m pretty damn SURE I would prefer the less expensive Californians. That’s because whenever a single California winery makes a “regular” bottling for less than $25 and a more expensive “reserve” bottling, I almost inevitably prefer the regular bottling.
“Nothing decent comes out of California for less than $25??”
Not true.
How about, “Nothing decent comes out of California for more than $25.” Not true either, but I wonder whether that declaration might not be closer to the truth.
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By Ann Boucher
July 29, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
Despite the tanking dollar, I have found an astounding amount of great wine under $20 from France and Spain, as of late. I have also stumbled upon some real gems from California (not as much as from France and Spain).