In Out on its own in California (FT, March 13, 14), Jancis Robinson tells us about her visit at Ridge Vineyards to celebrate their 50th Anniversary and what a great time she had.
She also reflects on the California scene and without naming names notes that "thanks to recent swollen crops and plummeting sales of California’s many ambitiously priced wines, there is a glut of good wine – much of it finding its way into keenly priced bottles carrying a plethora of negociant labels. American wine buyers are currently spoilt for choice in the $10-$30 a bottle range."
A few days ago at the Skurnik Wines Grand Portfolio Tasting 2010, there were plenty of high end California wineries, Peter Michael, Paul Hobbs to name a couple.
I met the two brothers from Detert Family in Napa, real nice guys who know their stuff.
They were pouring their 2006 Oakville Cabernet Franc (250 cases) and Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon (140 cases produced), great artisan wines and small production so they should sell out even at $60 a bottle for the Cab Franc and around $80 for the Cab Sauvignon.
At the same tasting, I was happy to meet Rudy Von Strasser (Diamond Mountain region) who I feel never took part in the excesses of the go-go years.
Rudy (pictured below) told me he was in a sweet spot because 70% of his wines are purchased through direct sales.
For many years now, I have scratched my head as to what justified the high price of many California wines as compared to those of the Old World.
Was it another form of irrational exuberance?
Was it based on the fact that wineries bought expensive real estate in many cases and like landlords with a jumbo mortgage asking for high rents set the price of their wines accordingly?
Getting back to Jancis Robinson's piece, she chides some premium California wineries for making 'big fruit bombs' high in alcohol. She also feels they became insular and failed to test the waters beyond the US shores.
I guess we will see in the next couple of years how the dust settles.
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