No Whining in the Real World

If there’s anything more annoying than some old codger kvetching about how expensive wines are today, it’s young codgers doing the same thing.

Yes, it’s irritating to hear some well-aged wine collector reproachfully recall buying Cha^teau Lafite-Rothschild or some such treasure for $5 a bottle. Those days are gone forever. But the young kvetchers are worse. All they do is gripe about the unfairness of life. Wines are so expensive, they whimper (over their $2 lattes and $4 craft beers). It’s not fair, they say.

Well, it’s time to reveal the most important fact of wine life today: This is the greatest moment in history to be buying wine. This isn’t hyperbole. Most of today’s wine prices are not something to get over, they’re something to get with.

The headlines are grabbed by a handful of preposterously priced wines, like red Bordeaux selling for $200 a bottle. Rare red and white Burgundies do ask (and get) $500 a bottle. It’s a free market and more power to them.

But make no mistake: It’s not the wine market we’re talking about here but the stock market. So much money has been made recently that newly flush wine buyers are prepared to pay astronomical prices for blue-chip wines. By the way, this is not just in the United States. Newly rich Asians are among the most avid price-senseless buyers.

But most wines, even some of the world’s best wines, never intersect the stock market. Their prices are real, which is to say they reflect real investment in vineyards, in lower yields, in better equipment and in courageous elimination of lesser batches in order to achieve a higher standard.

All this does cost money, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into hundreds of dollars a bottle. Not even 50 bucks a bottle. Try $20. Tops. A higher asking price is often a result of supply and demand, to say nothing of marketing prowess.

What we’re seeing today is the most astonishing selection of fine wines the world has ever known. Wines are streaming in from previously unknown or only newly developed precincts. Above all, they are better made than ever before. They are purer, cleaner, more reflective of their vineyard sites.

Best of all, we’re seeing wholly new wines from revived or brand-new districts. Close to home, we’re discovering the Pinot Noir potential of western Sonoma County in the stunning wines of Williams & Selyem Winery and Dehlinger Winery, to name just two shining lights. We are rediscovering the site-specific qualities of Zinfandel, thanks to the ‘90s trend toward single-vineyard bottlings.

It’s happening everywhere in the world: Washington Cabernets and Merlots, Australian Shiraz (Syrah) from numerous districts, robust reds from the revival of the Mourvedre grape in southern France, the renaissance of dozens of once-illustrious Italian wines like Barolo and Chianti and the awakening of Spain after decades of suffocation under the Franco regime. This list could be tripled effortlessly: Look at Greece, Portugal, New Zealand, Virginia, New York, British Columbia, Chile, Argentina and so on.

The best part is that the vast majority of the top-rank wines from all these places, including California, sell for modest prices. Yet their quality is superb. Their prices are real-world. Allow me to submit the following as evidence:

*1996 Bodegas Guelbenzu “Jardin” (Navarra) ($9.95): If you look at a map of Spain, in the north near the French border you will see the Ebro River. Midway along its length is Spain’s most famous wine district, Rioja. Opposite Rioja, north of the river, is the less well-known district called Navarra. It’s just south of the famous bull-running town of Pamplona.

Spain is packed with wine districts of promise; Navarra is one of them. And its increasing fame, at least in export markets, is partly thanks to the Guelbenzu family. Almost single-handedly, the Guelbenzus have come to grips with the fact that wine standards have changed. Not only must wines be cleaner and fresher-tasting, they must be distinctive.

So the Guelbenzus modernized their winery. They bought new French oak vats. They recognized low yields as essential. Various bottlings are offered, but the real deal is the bottling called Jardin (pronounced har-DEEN).

Jardin is 100% Garnacha (Grenache), from vines averaging 40 years of age, with yields of just two tons of grapes per acre. It is a new kind of Spanish red. The dime-store scent of American oak so prominent in old-style Spanish reds is utterly absent. In its place are vibrant taste and color. This is Grenache as we rarely see it: deep, blackish red with a peppery scent that begs for grilled meats. This just-released 1996 bottling is only the second edition of Jardin, which helps explain the bargain price. Look for a street price as low as $7.95.

*1995 Covey Run Vintners Fume Blanc (Yakima Valley) ($8.50): Whoever imagined Washington state as a source of some of the world’s best wines? Until recently, nobody. Eastern Washington with its flat, arid expanses was the wine world’s version of the “They laughed when I sat down to play . . . “ advertisement. They’re not laughing anymore.

As always, a few stars (Leonetti, Woodward Canyon) grab the hype and the high prices. But other producers are issuing lovely wines at much lower prices. Covey Run Vintners is one. It has transformed itself from a workhorse winery into a real thoroughbred. This 1995 Sauvignon Blanc (a.k.a. Fume Blanc) shows the result.

Deftly aged in small French oak barrels, this is a Sauvignon Blanc with real finesse. The oak aging is subtle enough that there’s no intrusive oakiness, but you get the benefit of the thicker “mouth feel” that small oak barrels can impart. Price is the clincher. Look for a street price as low as $6.95 a bottle. If there’s a better Sauvignon Blanc selling for anywhere near that price, I haven’t tasted it.

*1995 Foris Vineyards Winery Vintage Ruby Port (Oregon) ($18): If you want proof that we’re living in a whole new world of wine, try this remarkable ruby Port from Foris Vineyards Winery in southern Oregon’s Cave Junction, near the California border. I’m hard-pressed to recall another Port quite like it, if for no other reason than that it’s 100% Pinot Noir.

Oregon is well known for its Pinot Noir, but not in the sweet, fresh ruby Port style. Yet Foris saw an opportunity in southern Oregon’s gentle autumn climate. The Pinot Noir grapes for this slightly sweet, beautifully fragrant, berry-like Port were late-harvested in November, after they had dried slightly on the vine.

Like all port-style wines, it has been fortified with brandy (for a total 18% alcohol). And even that is Oregon in origin, the fortification a blend of brandies from two Oregon distilleries, Clear Creek and Brandy Peak. The wine was left unfined and unfiltered, the better to reveal its distinctive Pinot Noir flavors. This is a dessert wine that will please (and perhaps amaze) both Pinot Noir and Port lovers. Half-bottles are also available for $10.95.