'Finding bargains in an overpriced wine market', FT, 31.12 2022

Article discussions
1

I read with interest JR’s piece in the 31 DEC FT on wine prices. As both a wine scores victim and a bargain hunter (something new and different with an 18 for under £30 is my buy threshold), I heartily agree with everything said. The last I could afford Sassicaia was 1994 (admittedly not a great vintage), which then could be had for £300 a full case. (Un)fortunately it was good, so, it disappeared from my stocks in a few years.

In reading JR’s scores out of 100 for those 3 Italian ‘bordeaux’, I am guessing that they were converted arithmetically from JR scores out of 20. But, arithmetic does not seem to adequately translate these scores. I have found from long experience of comparing scores (as a punter, I buy only after researching tasting notes and scores from various wine critics, not having the dream access that JR’s tasters do…) that, for example, 18/20 is about 95-96/100; a 90/100 is about 16.5/20, and that longstanding JR benchmark of 17/20 converts to about 92-93/100. So much for arithmetic.

Despite the admirable desire to highlight fine wines that do not require a mortgage, and consistently pointing out that quality and price are not linked, JR must know that the price/quality myth still has appeal. (A friend had an aunt with an antique store, whose strategy for pieces that did not shift was to double the price. Why? It worked…) Otherwise, why would Clos Rougeard appeal over, say, Thierry Germain’s fine cabernet francs, when you can visit Roches Neuves and taste with Germain himself, or Joguet’s Dioterie, whose 2014 is very fine now.).

I, for one, would prefer that the fine wine bargains be kept quiet, only to be discovered by those ‘train spotting’ bargain hunters like myself who follow scores obsessively. The notes, to belatedly finish a conversation with Julia Harding at a recent Howard Ripley tasting, are to read whilst tasting the wine in question, in order to discover the many delights those wines have to offer (and to learn from one of the greats). The fact that it is fine wine at a bargain price only adds to the pleasure. Secrets are there to be guarded closely.

D’Arcy Fenton

2

Might I mention the Semeli 2017 currently on offer at TWS at £12.50 a bottle? When Jancis described it this spring as ‘seriously underpriced’ and vgv it was £13.50. Therefore now even more of a billy bargain. I have bought 30 bottles, in hope and expectation.

3

I also enjoyed the article. Certainly there are many examples of vastly overpriced cult wines. But I have also come to the belief that price can be a good indicator of quality. A property that has established a place for itself in the market knows how the numbers (for that property) work. They can, with confidence, make all those investments which lead to a quality product … vineyard management, constant attention during the growing cycle, professional eyes and hands at the sorting table, spotless and up to date facilities, quality cooperage and so forth. To my mind the price of a wine can be an indication that all those investments have yielded a quality product.

But I suppose if you have a gazillion dollars or pounds or whatever you have to (want to) spend your money somehow. So I leave the bidding wars for those “Parker 99 point” wines to those people.

4

Thanks for all these comments (and the Semeli recommendation - wish I’d seen this when ordering a case and a half for our family New Year in Bristol). But no conversion was involved with my scores; simple addition of the five scores out of 20 (one for each of five vintages).