Cult Wine Oh Nine

Summer arrived in New York with a splash -- cold and wet -- but the trains are still packed out to Montauk, the Jamaica-stop on the Long Island Railroad has traingoers negotiating the politics of seating arrangements with sweaty seniors and the disabled, and the New Jersey Turnpike is packed from north Jersey to Exit 8. Flights are delayed. Market volatility remains high. All indicators point to a long and restless summer. 2009 has officially become the Year the World Stood Still while we collectively wait for indicators from analysts who inhabit think tanks that may one day reveal the Great Recession has left our shores for greener pastures.

And it's the wettest spring anyone can remember. Instead of drinking crisp sauvignon blanc and dry Mosel in poorly air conditioned rented apartments I’ve been opening cabernets and merlots which I briefly cool off in the fridge. Just last night we opened a Robert Sinskey 2005 Los Carneros Merlot ** that was nicely textured and tart. Beer just hasn't felt thick enough for this grotesque imitation of early summer, despite the fact that everyone from President Obama to Eric Asimov to Shea Coulson at Just Grapes have declared beer season officially open. I’ll admit, it seems particularly chic these days to be drinking beer in casually expensive looking cheap dark clothing. I just can’t bring myself to do it.

In the midst of this dare-say-summer I am going to post on Cult Wine prices. At first, this may seem to be in particularly poor taste. After all, no one has the money for $300 cabernet sauvignon from California, and even alluding to Cult Wines, let alone drinking them, is so out of fashion that one hesitates to mention the plethora of emails arriving daily intra-continentally.

But as cheap 2008 Bordeaux threatens to flood our shores, I am eager to defend American producers in difficult times. It’s just that this year I had hoped for some understanding from them, with corresponding price reductions, considering the ultimate demise of the investment banking industry and everything that went down the toilet with it. I had thought that, after Bordeaux released 2008 prices at up to 40% off 2007, our own Cult Wine producers would give us a break. Not much, of course, but something. To my horror and surprise, I was dead wrong.

I've considered the how and why of this for days as I prepared and researched this post, on such a wide range of topics as teenage mating habits to the migratory patterns of economists. (What less is expected of a wine blogger?) But the only thing I have found – and I have found it quite certainly – is that there are in fact six stages to grief when one is confronted by one's own inability to purchase Cult Wines. (Some will say there are only five stages of grief, so consider this the Kübler-McBride Theory of Loss.)

First, there is shock, as in, "Huh? Maybe I should refresh this email and see just ... oh, it's really real, they raised prices again. Could this be right?" And so on and so forth as I restart my computer, reopen my email, and recheck the release price, until it finally sinks in.

Second, there is denial, as in, "I’m not going to let this happen to me. I absolutely refuse to pay this price for wine. Ever. Never again.”

Third, there is anger, as in, “This release price is an insult to the buyer. I learned my lesson with 2005 Bordeaux. To hell with them. They all suck anyway.”

Fourth and fifth, there is fear, followed closely by bargaining, followed more closely by more denial, with a final bout of depression thrown in for good measure, as in, "Damn, if I lose my place on the list, I may never get it back again. I may not get my 2007 allocation! I may not get my Abreu! Only one bottle. Maybe two. Oh, but I can’t, not at these prices!" The fear and the bargaining and the depression go on for a good while.

Finally, there is resignation.

Now, here I digress, because resignation can take many forms. Resignation could, for example, take the form of, "Well, that's it. I just will have to drop the list and buy the wines from elsewhere, at retail, for less than the producer is selling it for. Oh, boo-hoo." And here it is worth mentioning that nothing looks meaner than releasing your wine to your “Release List” at a higher price than it can be had at retail! If the consumer can go out and buy your wine at his local liquor store for 80% what he paid you, why do you have a mailing list in the first place? It’s unlikely that anyone looking for Cult Wines is unaware of Wine-Searcher, and when he realizes he has been duped you will have permanently damaged your relationship with the consumer. So do the consumer a favor – stop allowing the second tier to value price your brands if you are going to first try and bilk the "club members." It looks greedy, and it leaves a bad aftertaste.

Lastly, there is the resignation that takes the form of, "$%^&* it...I've come this far. Just send me the damn wine and to hell with you." This is done solely to stay on the list. And if buyers learn they could have gotten these wines later, for less, the Cult Wine producer has damaged his reputation with the ultimate consumer -- yet again.

Are some of the wines listed below worth buying? Yes. Many of them are. Cult Wines are some of the greatest in the world. The problem is that Cult Wine prices for 2009 are totally out of line with today's marketplace. No one is looking for these wines. No one wants these wines. No one even wants to be associated with these wines right now. So raising prices in this economy not only seems to me to be corporate suicide, it seems insulting to the core consumer. And that, my friends, is the anomaly in your Veblen goods market theory, the ghost in the Cult Wine machine.

Thus, consider this the anti-Veblen/McBride Theory of Prestige-Value Pricing in a Down Market, according to which, when “only the best” no longer equates to “only the most expensive,” brands built for the long haul can increase core market consumption by reducing prices inline with consumer expectations, increasing transparency and building long term relationships without sacrificing “prestige value.” For those concerned that a price reduction in this market is going to adversely affect their appeal to Cult Wine consumers, let’s just say that the 2008 en primeur Bordeaux campaign should have put that fear to rest.

Winter-Spring 2009 Cult Wine Release Schedule with pricing (where available)

January
Ridge Monte Bello 2007 $125
Quilceda Creek 2005 $140
Kistler 2006 avg. $85
Sloan 2005 $1100/3-pack OWC
Blankiet 2006 $185 (old vintages of this wine sell for $85. Why would anyone purchase the 2006 as a future release for 250% of the 2001?)
Kosta Browne (prices for single vineyard wines unavailable)
Hanzell $95 (major price increase…regretting now that I told them to increase prices.)

February
Peter Michael 2006 Les Pavots $185; chardonnays avg. $85
Ovid “Experiment” (second wine) 3 for $225
Merus 2006 $450/3 pack
Brewer Clifton 2006 avg. 65
Amuse Bouche ($1375/6-pack)
Coup de Foudue (I don’t even remember signing up for this list)
Pharoah Moans (Is this for real? Seriously, would someone stop putting my name on all these damn lists…)
Robert Foley 2007 Claret $110
SQN (white wine blend) $100
Paul Hobbs (single vineyard cabernets around $200)
Ramey (single vineyard cabernets up to $185)
Linne Calodo (a slam dunk producer, wish there were more of these)

March
DuMOL (RRV second wines $50+)
Scarecrow 2006 $600/3-pack OWC
Continuum 2006 $150+
Araujo sauvignon blanc $50
Futo $600/3-pack OWC
Sea Smoke (up to $100/bottle)
Tablas Creek (Panoplie $90)

April
Lokoya ($200/bottle)
Quintessa ($110+)
Colgin (IX Estate $290)

May
Arietta (varied)
Hundred Acre Deep Time $300
Kongsgaard (varied) $100-$175

June
Wind Gap (varied)
Pax Wine Cellars (varied)
Alban Vineyard (varied)
Araujo ($275 cabernet, $110 syrah)
Hundred Acre 2006 Ancient Way shiraz $600/3-pack OWC