Price of a Bottle of Wine

I have a dear friend who holds value in great regard.  He spent years working in finance, so what a dollar will buy is very important to him.  Recently, he reached out with a question about his purchase of a $10 bottle of Pinot Noir.  He thoroughly enjoyed it and bought a few more.  His question to me was is it really good or was he just kidding himself?

His purchase was a bottle of 2021 Pinot Noir.  I let him know that the vintage was an outrageously successful growing season for beautiful, expressive grapes.  This may have been the exception, yet it was very possible that it was a pleasurable bottle.  It also may be that the vintner had an excess of grapes in this vintage and sold off some fruit that another winery took and made this very nice Pinot Noir for such a low price.

The word I emphasize is “exception.”  Ten dollar bottles of wine from California are few and far between.  Why is that?  Well, consider what costs go into making a bottle of wine:

·      Cost of land

·      Preparation of the vineyard

·      Buying rootstock to plant

·      Metal and wires for the vineyards

·      Labor cost to plant and care for the vines

·      Labor cost to trim the vines for proper heat and sun exposure through the growing season

·      Water cost if needed during the season

·      Labor cost to trim back the fruit for optimal ripeness and flavors

Oh, and then, we can start to rack up the cost for making the wine starting with picking the fruit, sorting the fruit all the way through crush to setting the juice in barrel.  Most red wines age in barrel for 18 to 24 months – even 36 months for some.  There’s a cost to age the wine and, of course, to bottle it. And the entire process requires oversight.

I think you get the picture. A ten dollar bottle that is enjoyable to drink is a huge challenge for the vintners. 

Just to give you another picture, here is a diagram from an article written out of Oregon.  This is a $20 bottle yet gives you the next level of costs for distribution.

All this to say, there is a lot that goes into a bottle of wine to bring it to your table. 

Enjoy!