Two points:
1/Although Jim was not a fan of stems, he and I made two wines with around 35% stems under the Ici la bas label. I remember the 2006 started to taste great…right after it was all sold. But I do treasure the remaining magnums.
2/Barrel prices: When I started to sell Francois barrels in 1980, the price was 300$ each. Now, 45 years later…1300$ or so…and that includes the extra tariffs imposed by our orange faced leader in Washington DC.
Some time ago I got an e mail from a well known winery owner in Napa…these prices are crazy!
As it happened,I had an old catalog with the price of his 1980 Napa Cab…$10! By then it had grown to $60. In the meantime the price of a barrel had tripled.
So I said to this guy, we’re losing ground…what have we done wrong??
End of exchange.