Could a bottle of wine be worth $2700, like the Napa Valley Screaming Eagle on four different Boston wine lists?
Apparently they are to some people. Sommeliers at fancy restaurants report customers demand unattainable cult wines to satisfy their tastes ― or impress their friends. Retailers and wineries say customers will pay almost anything to get the dozen cult wines from favored wineries. Most are Napa Cabernets, though a few others are approaching that stature.
The hottest cult wine is Screaming Eagle, an intense Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that was recently bought by owners of sports teams in the mid west.
The going retail price for a bottle of Screaming Eagle is $1000 ― if you can find one. The winery only produces about 6000 bottles, 500 cases, per year.
Even rarer: the 125 cases of Grace Family Vineyards.
Equally sought are Bryant Family, Dalla Valle Maya, Harlan Estates, Araujo and Colgin, all from wineries that produce tiny amounts of wine. Only one wine from a moderate-sized producer, Shafer Vineyards Hillside select, has achieved cult status, but it’s also made in small quantity.
The cult wine phenomenon isn’t new. In the ‘60s, customers fought to buy Stony Hill Chardonnay and in the ‘70’s, Heitz Martha’s vineyard Cabernet achieved cult status.
In the ‘80’s, Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi priced their Opus One at $50, and it was in intense demand. Now at $150, Opus remains in heavy demand in Las Vegas and other homes of high-rollers, but its 30,000-case production has ended cult status.
Scarcity, in fact, is vital to cult wines, but it’s not enough. Many wines are made in small quantities yet few are so sought.
It takes small supply combined with huge demand to create a cult. “It’s rarity combined with the excitement of pursuit,” says Karen MacNeill, head of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley.
That demand is achieved through celebrity winemakers, clever promotion and the blessing of writers and critics who anoint favorites.
And the wines themselves are wonderful. They come from rare vineyards combining ideal vines planted in the perfect climate, soil and exposure, tended with the care given prize orchids. The grapes are picked at the perfect moment, and lovingly nurtured by winemakers with impeccable intuition and taste.
Heidi Barrett modestly says her wines result from high-quality grapes and the right choices in turning them into wine, when to pick, when to press.
What results is indeed special. “The wines are powerfully fragrant and flowered,” notes wine expert John Thoreen. “They’re enormously complex wines with great assertiveness on the palate.”
Even so, wine expert Wilfred Wong notes that today’s cult wines are unproven. They don’t have the centuries of history enjoyed by famed Bordeaux estates. “No one knows how they will age.”
Not surprisingly, cynics ask, “Are they wines worth it?” Are cult wines really better than other wines?
They are to some people. “Like beauty, worth is in the eye of the beholder,” notes MacNeill.
Nevertheless, she worries that publicity given these wines may suggest that good wines are very expensive, discouraging people from enjoying wine. Yet large and small producers alike make fine wines that sell for much less.
Whether cult wines are actually better than cheaper wines is irreverent to their wealthy fans, however. They fight to buy them at any price.
Bryant Family
Colgin
Dalla Maya
Grace Family
Harlan Estates
Jones Family
Marcassin
Screaming Eagle
Shafer Hillside select
Published with permission by the author.
Apparently they are to some people. Sommeliers at fancy restaurants report customers demand unattainable cult wines to satisfy their tastes ― or impress their friends. Retailers and wineries say customers will pay almost anything to get the dozen cult wines from favored wineries. Most are Napa Cabernets, though a few others are approaching that stature.
The hottest cult wine is Screaming Eagle, an intense Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that was recently bought by owners of sports teams in the mid west.
The going retail price for a bottle of Screaming Eagle is $1000 ― if you can find one. The winery only produces about 6000 bottles, 500 cases, per year.
Even rarer: the 125 cases of Grace Family Vineyards.
Equally sought are Bryant Family, Dalla Valle Maya, Harlan Estates, Araujo and Colgin, all from wineries that produce tiny amounts of wine. Only one wine from a moderate-sized producer, Shafer Vineyards Hillside select, has achieved cult status, but it’s also made in small quantity.
The cult wine phenomenon isn’t new. In the ‘60s, customers fought to buy Stony Hill Chardonnay and in the ‘70’s, Heitz Martha’s vineyard Cabernet achieved cult status.
In the ‘80’s, Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Robert Mondavi priced their Opus One at $50, and it was in intense demand. Now at $150, Opus remains in heavy demand in Las Vegas and other homes of high-rollers, but its 30,000-case production has ended cult status.
Scarcity, in fact, is vital to cult wines, but it’s not enough. Many wines are made in small quantities yet few are so sought.
It takes small supply combined with huge demand to create a cult. “It’s rarity combined with the excitement of pursuit,” says Karen MacNeill, head of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley.
That demand is achieved through celebrity winemakers, clever promotion and the blessing of writers and critics who anoint favorites.
And the wines themselves are wonderful. They come from rare vineyards combining ideal vines planted in the perfect climate, soil and exposure, tended with the care given prize orchids. The grapes are picked at the perfect moment, and lovingly nurtured by winemakers with impeccable intuition and taste.
Heidi Barrett modestly says her wines result from high-quality grapes and the right choices in turning them into wine, when to pick, when to press.
What results is indeed special. “The wines are powerfully fragrant and flowered,” notes wine expert John Thoreen. “They’re enormously complex wines with great assertiveness on the palate.”
Even so, wine expert Wilfred Wong notes that today’s cult wines are unproven. They don’t have the centuries of history enjoyed by famed Bordeaux estates. “No one knows how they will age.”
Not surprisingly, cynics ask, “Are they wines worth it?” Are cult wines really better than other wines?
They are to some people. “Like beauty, worth is in the eye of the beholder,” notes MacNeill.
Nevertheless, she worries that publicity given these wines may suggest that good wines are very expensive, discouraging people from enjoying wine. Yet large and small producers alike make fine wines that sell for much less.
Whether cult wines are actually better than cheaper wines is irreverent to their wealthy fans, however. They fight to buy them at any price.
hot cult wines
AraujoBryant Family
Colgin
Dalla Maya
Grace Family
Harlan Estates
Jones Family
Marcassin
Screaming Eagle
Shafer Hillside select
Published with permission by the author.