Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Cost of a bottle of wine?

Three or so weeks ago I decided to take an early night off of work and take a beautiful girl, that I am very interested in, to a special restaurant up on Lake Martin called Spring House. Now I wanted this night to be perfect....so I called the chef to let him know we were coming,  I planned the timing perfect so we could enjoy sunset,  I looked up the menu online to know exactly what to order that night, and most importantly I brought an amazing bottle of wine.  In this case Shafer's 2001 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stag's Leap District of Napa Valley in California.  To me this is no mere bottle of wine....this is a bottle which I had kept in a climate controlled cooler for many years and that had traversed the country with me as I worked in various locations.  When I decided to drink this very special bottle that night it began to occur to me that the importance of this bottle was not only monetary but also emotional and almost spritual.  I mean this bottle had been like a pet to me, that had been all over the country... through 3 or 4 apartments that I lived in...transported every time with the care of the Hope diamond!  I then remembered the amount that I paid for this bottle...upwards of $200...which brought me here...writing this blog.  I often hear from non-cork dorks a very simple question...."Why would somebody pay so much for a single bottle of wine?"  Now for some one like me that is a no brainer....BECAUSE IT IS A 2001 HILLSIDE SELECT!!!   However to most people that means very little..so I began to think...how could I illustrate to the common person the intrinsic value of such rare piece of the wine world.

To start I began thinking of the sheer value of a single bottle of wine from a monetary stand point and how it is derived in an open market.  Keynesian economic theory, which is one of the foremost economic theory's in our time, sates the law of supply and demand...meaning that if there is a huge demand for an item and a very low supply for that same item, than the cost will rise.   Sounds simple right?  Well here is the argument for most people against why a bottle of wine should not be so expensive by this theory...there is no shortage of wine in this world...and moreover in the current economy there is huge stock piles of wine that wineries and distributors can't give away....yet every vintage a bottle of say Chateau Mouton Rothschild increases in value and sells almost every bottle before it is even fermented!  The answer to this part of the question is that to everybody the difference between a bottle of Doug Shafer and Elias Fernandez's 2001 Hillside Select is no different than a bottle of the Gallo Familie's Tickle Pink Boone's Farm....I mean to some people a bottle of wine is nothing more than a bottle of wine!  That being said, to some of us that is simply not the case...and to the rest of you...well basically you should be slapped for ever thinking such a thing.   

To most people that drink wine regularly a big part of the reason a bottle of wine can still be considered "rare," even in times when so much wine is on the market, is because some of us know that a certain bottle of wine comes from a very special place on the earth...and in this special place the grapes are grown a certain way....cared for intensely over the course of their life...harvested at exactly the right time...and eventually put into a bottle for us to enjoy.  So if this is something you believe let me break down a few statistics to show you the actual rarity of a single bottle of wine, from a certain area of the world, in a certain year.  To begin lets look at the investment that a winemaker in the Napa Valley must make to produce wine.  On average an acre of land under vine that produces grapes in Napa cost somewhere between one hundred and twenty thousand dollars and three hundred thousand dollars.  The average for a small winery is around a million dollars.  Then you have labor, barrels, marketing, and so on and so on... so to say the least it is a very big investment.  Now lets look at the rarity of a single bottle of wine in sheer statistics!  There are currently about four hundred wineries in Napa that produce around nine point two million cases of wine annually....that equals out to one hundred million, four hundred thousand  bottles of wine a year. That means that if you are holding one bottle of wine from Napa you are holding .00000009% of that years anual production....small number right....but how small.  Well the distance between the earth and the sun is about a hundred million miles, give or take a few million.  This means that if you were floating out in space somewhere, you could be in a space ship a mile long (and by the way the Starship Enterpirse was only about twelve hundred feet long), and the length of your space ship would be about the same percentage of that same single bottle of wine from a single harvest in Napa....kinda puts it into perspective don't it Captain Kirk!  So is that the answer....it's the simple rarity...well if that is the case than all bottles of wine from a certain area would carry that type of value...so what is it then?

To this sommelier it is a mixture of a few things that are both tangible and intangible.  It is a proven fact that the more of anything you eat or drink the more your palate gets used to it and there fore changes.  This means that some one who has never tasted wine would never appreciate wine like I or many other millions of wine drinkers around the world do.   The Hillside Select would very simply taste "better" to me than to a non wine drinker because of my experience and palate....that is why you will rarely know some one that doesn't drink wine that will ever understand the reason we pay so much for a bottle of wine....but that's only half of the answer....if those people wouldn't pay so much what about the people that will?

That is about where I was in my screwed up little wine lovers brain when I let Lacey pour my date and I the first sip of the Hillside Select that had been decanting for well over an hour.  As we each took that first sip...that first pefect sip where my dates eyes lit up like diamonds in the sunlight...where I tasted for the first time the perfectly seamless tannins...the dark chocolate that gave way to a subtle tobacco and finished with a polished vanilla...that was the very moment that the answer to my question hit me like a ton of bricks.  All of these things really shouldn't matter to anybody except the person that is drinking such an incredible bottle of wine!  The value comes from those of us that can truly can savor and enjoy the wine for what it is...not the cost...not the pain staking measures to keep it perfectly stored...but instead that moment in time that the person or persons drinking that bottle will always remember and cherish!  I know that until I go to wino heaven, where we all start our day with a glass of Chateau Y'Quem and end it with a 1976 Dows vintage port and a plate of chocolate chip cookies (port and chocolate chip cookies....trust me!), I will always remember the awesome time I had that night....how perfect the food, the company, the service, and most of all that 2001 Hillside Select truly was!  Now if you tell me that you still do not understand why someone would pay so much for a bottle of wine...then you name me some other item that will put a smile on your face, as big as the one I get when thinking of that bottle of wine and the memory of the night that accompanies it and I will guarantee you, what ever that thing is, it won't be cheap!!!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Everyday questions for a sommelier...

About 2 years ago my life became much more interesting from a professional stand point when I passed my Sommelier (pronounced saw-muh-LYAY)  certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers.  Even though for years I had loved wine, and studied it intensely, after receiving an official certification, through such a respected program, I have found that many more people hit me with an array of questions on a daily basis.  Thanks to my mom's good friend Bart I have decided to learn to "Blog" to answer some of these questions and also address points of interest that some of my patrons, friends, and family members may have so I don't sound like a broken record answering the same questions everyday.  However I do warn you to bear with me....I am no literary genius and sometimes have no filter on my mouth....so if you get rubbed the wrong way please don't take it personal and know that it's only one person's point of view!   

One of the main questions that I get asked is "What is a sommelier?"  Well to answer this question straight from the "Wine Lover's Companion" (which by the way is one of the best wine books ever) a sommelier is a french term for a wine steward or waiter that is in charge of the wine at an establishment. Sounds simple, right?   A sommelier is often thought as a stuffy old man that stands in the corner of a restaurant and turns his nose up at any bottle of wine that doesn't cost over a hundred dollars and is not from Bordeaux and Burgundy.  In reality most of us are in the age range from 22-35 and are full of suggestions of wine to drink from anywhere in the world that are usually moderately priced.  Most of us aren't able to afford such affluent wines from the great estates of France so we are drinking alot of really good wines that you have never heard of.  So answer this question a little more frankly the real definition of a sommelier is someone who has an extensive knowledge of wine and food, who is in charge of selecting wine for an establishment, that is priced to sell, and loves to converse about wine everyday. Some of us have gone through a formal program such as the Court of Master Sommeliers program, but some of the most wine savvy people in the world have no formal certification.  This doesn't mean that they don't know as much as a "certified" sommelier, it just means that they didn't have the time money or inclination to jump through the hoops of being "certified" by an official program...which brings me to my next question. 

Question number two..."What do you have to do to become a certified sommelier?"  Well first of all you have to have a real passion for wine.  Now I don't mean that you like to go to Publix and buy a few bottles of wine and drink them with the hubby over dinner.  No, I mean you need to love everything  about wine.  The soil, the grape, the climates, the different countries, the myth, the lore, and the legend that all surround wine.  You need to be a bit of a history buff, a bit of a geography geek, with a pinch of scientist thrown into the mix.  If you have met all these criteria then you need to do two things...and do them often. 

One...taste alot of wine.  Now I am not telling you to go get drunk all the time...that's why I said "taste" and not "drink."  As sommeliers we may taste up to fifty or even a hundred wines a day...now if your "drinking" that much wine a day than you are reading the wrong blog...you need to be reading the twelve step blog.  Tasting is a deductive process by where you analyze a wine for its sight, smell, and flavor.  Moreover you need to be able to identify specific things about the wine that will help you pair it with different types of food...but we will get into that later down the road. 

Two...you need to study...alot!  If you want to pass the certified level of the sommelier exam you will need to know alot about all areas of the wine world.  When I say alot...I mean a whole lot!!!  For example...in Burgundy alone there are 33 Grand Cru Vineyards...not only do you need to know all of them but you also need to know what type of grapes are grown in each vineyard, which village they are in, which region of burgundy they are in and also the great vintages and producers from each.  Now knowing that Burgundy is one of the smallest wine regions in all of France you can imagine how much more difficult a larger region like Bordeaux could be. 

Once again if these criteria are met than you get to take the Court of Masters Sommelier Certified Exam.  This is an all day exam given at various places all over the country.  The typical exam will begin around 8:00 am and ends around 4:00 pm.  The exam consists of 3 parts, a blind tasting of 2 wines, one red and one white, where you must identify the type of grape, region of the world it is from, it's climate, fruit characteristic and vintage.  Part two is a written exam that consists of 25 questions mix and match multiple choice and short answer that covers all area of general wine knowledge.  Part three you have  a service exam where you must perform a mock service for a Master Sommelier.  In this part of the exam you will also be asked a myriad of food pairing questions, dessert wine questions, and anything else he or she feels like asking you....and a word to the wise....don't try to bullshit one of these guys...they will know!  If you pass all 3 portions of this test then you will be a certified sommelier...awarded a purple certified sommelier pin, Now as I mentioned it doesn't mean that you know more than anybody else...just that you know enough for a Master Sommelier to sign off on your knowledge.

Final Question..."How do I know what is a good wine to drink?"  Obviously the easiest answer to this question is "what ever wine you think tastes good."  However if the answer was that easy than I would be out of a job.  The best answer to this question is that it is an absolutely endless answer.  It all depends on so many variables that you could literally spend a week....and alot of "blogging" on this question alone...which is what alot of people do and that is not the point of these little rants.  The reason I decided to write this series is to give you some practical knowledge that you can use when I, or anybody else for that matter, are around.

So the first and best answer I can give you is to ask a person at your local wine shop, grocery store, restaurant, hotel, country club, etc.... that deems themselves the "wine guy" of that location.  However, like so many other things in life where you must rely on another person there is always the chance that the person you are asking is either an idiot or completely full of shit.  The good thing about wine is that you will get an immediate feedback when you drink the wine he or she sells you.  So say you go into you local wine shop and buy a bottle of wine in the price range that you want to be in and it sucks.  Most likely you can go back in the next day or week and ask a few questions or even explain what you didn't like about it and determine yourself if that person is telling you the truth or blowing sunshine up your ass.  If you do determine that he is not quite as knowledgeable as he leads onto to be than you simply go somewhere else and buy wine from a different person until you find some one you trust.  This is where a certification does lend a little creditability because as you now know they don't just give those purple pins away.

Another good answer to this question is to use the rating systems that some one like Robert Parker or Wine Spectator will use.  This is normally a system that an expert like Robert Parker or James Suckling will use to rate a wine, while they only know very little about the wine so that they keep impartiality.  The good thing about these systems is that they give a score to a wine which you can then compare to the wines price and make a decision based on the information.  The down side to this system is that it is normally based off of one persons palate.  Meaning that if your palate is different from the person that is rating the wine then you could end up spending alot of money on a wine that you think sucks.  Remember one of the benefits of having a good sommelier is that we take the time to not only determine your comfortable price point, but also your experience with wine and what you like....not just slapping some score on a wine and saying everyone should agree with it.  Now once again...I am not trying to rag on any of these experts that rate wines...they are all definitely much more experienced and much, much, more privileged to taste wines that I will probably never get to taste....but unless you are good chums with one of these guys good luck getting one of them to take time out of their day to talk to you about your personal preference in wine.   Which is ultimately what this question is all about...what do you as a person like to drink.  So I remit to my first answer get to know you local wine guru and try things he suggests....speak at length with him about what you like and dislike...and most of all enjoy what you drink!!!