Big Picture
I've been boring anyone who'll listen to on this for some time, so time to write it down: I'm more and more convinved that there are only three kinds of wine that sell:
1. Cheap Wine
2. Great QPR wines
3. So good who cares what it costs
"Cheap" per se really doesn't interest me much. Nowadays with a half-competent winemaker and a relatively modern cellar pretty much anybody should be able to make drinkable wines. Wines with no obvious defects. OK to get plastered on. Of course there are still an unbelieveable number of really awful wines out there, but this category (which could come from absolutely anywhere) really doesn't interest me.
I can't possibly imagine why anyone would ever want to be in this market: It's like the "Sol y Playa" of Spanish coastal tourism... pitch for the lowest common denominator, and that's what you'll get. Until some other country with third world labour costs, a sandy coast and within a three hour flight of northern europe comes along, and boom! suddenly you're standing on the beach saying "where did everyone go?"
"QPR" - wines with a decent quality-price ratio, are the holy grail. For me this category encompasses anything retailing between about 6 and about 12 euros. For Priorat we'll let them get up to €15. For this sort of wine I want much more than just a lack of defects. Of course it must be well made, but it must also have character, a sense of place. Round here a lot of so-called "semi-criança" wines hit this spot for me, but a really well made unoaked white - like Dos Victorias José Pariente from Rueda - also deserve their place.
My "If it's this good who cares what it costs" category, is a bit more problematic: These wines have got to be better than just very good. They have to deliver something I touched on in my 2+5=5 post below. But when they do, price doesn't seem to be a problem.
1. Cheap Wine
2. Great QPR wines
3. So good who cares what it costs
"Cheap" per se really doesn't interest me much. Nowadays with a half-competent winemaker and a relatively modern cellar pretty much anybody should be able to make drinkable wines. Wines with no obvious defects. OK to get plastered on. Of course there are still an unbelieveable number of really awful wines out there, but this category (which could come from absolutely anywhere) really doesn't interest me.
I can't possibly imagine why anyone would ever want to be in this market: It's like the "Sol y Playa" of Spanish coastal tourism... pitch for the lowest common denominator, and that's what you'll get. Until some other country with third world labour costs, a sandy coast and within a three hour flight of northern europe comes along, and boom! suddenly you're standing on the beach saying "where did everyone go?"
"QPR" - wines with a decent quality-price ratio, are the holy grail. For me this category encompasses anything retailing between about 6 and about 12 euros. For Priorat we'll let them get up to €15. For this sort of wine I want much more than just a lack of defects. Of course it must be well made, but it must also have character, a sense of place. Round here a lot of so-called "semi-criança" wines hit this spot for me, but a really well made unoaked white - like Dos Victorias José Pariente from Rueda - also deserve their place.
My "If it's this good who cares what it costs" category, is a bit more problematic: These wines have got to be better than just very good. They have to deliver something I touched on in my 2+5=5 post below. But when they do, price doesn't seem to be a problem.
