Is there really a difference between a $10 bottle of wine and a $100 bottle of wine? 

And if so...What the HECK is it? And is is WORTH it?

If you’ve ever been stumped (or frankly a little annoyed or even turned off) at why bottles are priced they way they are, I’m here to shed some light on the elements that factor into how wine is priced. With a little clarity, you can feel better about grabbing that bottle… whether it’s $10, $100 or anything in between (or beyond!)

There was so much to simplify for you on this topic, that I split into 2 parts- This week we cover the first 3 elements that affect the COST of production of wine which has a direct correlation to the PRICE of that bottle. 

I’ll talk about:

• Farming 
• Volume/Production Size
• Winemaking and aging

Tune in next week for rest of what influences pricing!

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https://www.sipwithnikki.com/resource

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The Price of Wine- Part 1

Nikki:

Now, 10 grocery store wine, nothing wrong with that wine. If you like that, that's what you should drink, but it's just good to know and to understand the differences that 10 grocery store wine did not age for two years in a 1, 500 French oak barrel. Okay, there's would be no profit margin there, right?

Because the cost of production.

So today's episode is part one of two, because I received a wonderful listener question to talk about what affects the cost and pricing. And so when I started to go through the things I wanted to talk about, I realized there's enough here to make it two episodes. I've also received some great feedback from many of you since starting the podcast that you like the shorter.

More to the point episodes when they are sort of these teaching style with teacher Nikki at the front of the classroom my favorite So I have split the episode into two So this is part one where I'm going to talk about three of the five things that drive Cost of production, how much is it to make a bottle, and therefore, what is the price, and does it matter, and what do you need to know about that?

So, before we jump in, if you haven't already downloaded my wine tips cheat sheet, make sure you visit my website, SipWithNikki. com forward slash resource. Again, SipWithNikki. com forward slash resource. I will send that right to your inbox. And it's just super helpful with all of these types of tips to help make sense of wine.

So I received a really great Listener question from Eddie. Shout out to Eddie! And he wanted to know if I could talk about how wine is priced and the cost breakdown and what makes a difference between a 15 bottle versus a hundred dollar bottle. Is there a difference? So great question, Eddie. So here we go.

So we'll go through each one of those today. Before we do, here's the overarching thought, and this is the opinion of me, Nikki Lamberty. Just based on the decade or so that I've been studying, making, buying, drinking, you know, this is kind of my theory that I've amassed. So take it for what you will. But in my opinion, there is a very measurable difference in quality from a 10 bottle of wine to a 20.

So I truly believe this. I have been fortunate in my life to taste Many different wines in many different price points, certainly from the 10 price point, and I've been really lucky, especially through studying and when I did my wine program at the Culinary Institute of America, when I've done educational tastings at Pride Mountain Vineyards, the winery.

Making wine is farming. Wine growing, grape growing, having a vineyard, right? That's where it all starts, in the vineyard. So there's a real and true cost of land and vineyards, and it really varies. from different parts of the world. Why? Well, a couple different things, weather, climate, soil, right? Napa and Sonoma, this area where I live and where I make my wine, has some soils that don't exist.

So it's kind of like when you find areas in or on the planet, I should say, where it's the perfect storm of weather and soil and climate and sunshine and UV. Well, first of all, that's going to drive up the price of the vineyard land, which is going to have a real and true cost on the price of the bottle of wine that comes from that land.

The pruning, which is happening now in the winter, is done with a pair of pruning shears, not unlike rose bushes. So there is a real and true cost to that. And why do people do it? Well, because the belief has always been there's a perception of attention to detail and quality and a gentleness on the vines themselves versus doing a lot of those things, especially the picking of the grapes during the harvest with machines.

So, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon, most people know it well, it's found easily, but there's a really big price range in it, and often some of the most expensive bottles of wine that you'll see on a store or on a menu are Cabernet Sauvignon. Well, why does it tend to be more expensive? Couple things.

Generally, Cabernet is a smaller grape. When you literally look at a cluster of the grapes hanging on the vine, if it is Cabernet Sauvignon, which is a red grape, they are literally smaller than a counterpart cluster of Merlot grapes, or Pinot Noir, or Zinfandel, or even Sangiovese. So who cares? What does that mean?

So much of that is coming from the skin of the grape. So when you have a smaller grape like Cabernet Sauvignon, you have more of that skin. Well, it means a couple things. Number one, tannin. which primarily comes from the skin of the grape, little bit from the seeds. And we'll talk about aging and oak that influences tannin as well.

But tannin, which gives you that kind of dry, chalky, astringent feeling in the mouth comes from the skin. So a smaller grape like Cabernet is going to have a higher amount of tannin. And it means that we have to age that wine longer in the barrel typically before we bottle it and sell it because tannin softens with time.

So that would be a measurable difference as well. Okay. So in farming, cost of the land, cost of the labor and type of the grape. That wraps up our first category of what drives pricing. The second category would be volume, right? And this is like true of I think any product on the planet when you think about something being small lot, right?

And if you listen to my earlier episode about shopping in the store, generally these are going to be the ones down on the lower shelf, right? And a lot of times they're in a bigger bottle. Why? Because they make more volume. And so instead of aging in 59 gallon barrels, which is expensive, and we'll talk about that in a moment, they have huge tanks that hold thousands and thousands of gallons. And so everything is just on, on a bigger scale, which believe it or not.

all of those many, many bottles versus a teeny tiny producer, Sollevato, who is making 286 bottles. You still have to pay the grape growers, and you still have to have a place to make it, and you still have to turn the lights on and buy the barrel and all of that. So it is more expensive generally when it is a lower production as far as number or volume.

So that is the second category. Third category, and I sort of alluded to that, has to do with aging. So we're gonna, really two things in aging. The length of time, as I mentioned earlier, but then also the, the vessel that you're aging it in. So I mentioned wine barrels. If you can envision a typical wine barrel, many of them are French oak.

Now you can reuse that barrel year after year if you don't necessarily need the strength of the new effect of it, right? If you're more subtle. But you still gotta pay 1, 500 for each one, okay? Now, 10 grocery store wine, nothing wrong with that wine. If you like that, that's what you should drink, but it's just good to know and to understand.

Well, there's faster, cheaper ways to emulate that oakiness in a value price wine. Oak powder. Just like it sounds. Okay, so age wine in a, in a big stainless steel tank that you only have to purchase one time and you can use it forever and ever and ever, tens of thousands of gallons of volume at a time, like I said, and then you can add something called oak powder, just like it sounds.

Oak chips, right? There are producers that will purchase older barrels and sort of ground them up and essentially make it into almost like a tea bag that they're submerging into that stainless steel tank. So that's generally how you're getting oakiness. Now I say these things with no judgment, because again, this is purely about education.

But that is a real and true measurable difference is just literally the, the vessel that we say that the wine is aging, whether it's a standard size oak barrel or a big, huge, Puncheon, people call them that's, you'll see those used a lot more in Europe, but a lot of American wineries use them as well. I've mentioned stainless steel tags, even concrete is kind of gaining in popularity.

But then once it's in the bottle, there's a aging process that can or cannot happen depending on when you buy it and when you drink it. And when you buy it, was it a young wine? Was it quote unquote fresh? Is it something where the grapes were picked two or three years ago and just put in the bottle a few months ago and went right to the store shelf?

I'm going to encourage you to go back to the earlier episode where I talk about Aging in wine and what it does to the wine and then you can decide for yourself. But again when a wine has been cellared generally, that's going to increase the cost and the perceived value of it because The measurable part is there are simply less of those bottles to go around.

So that was our third category of things that affect pricing in wine, aging, length of time, the vessel and the cost, and then also the aging in the bottle.

We have a catalog now. We've hit 11 episodes. We're so fancy now. So feel free to go back and catch up if you've missed any. Like, have you heard? Aunt Vivian yet? Like that's the title of the episode. It's just Aunt Vivian and that's all it needs to be. And it's magic. So feel free to go back and catch up on those.

And please, please, please like the podcast in the platform that you are listening in. Feel free to share it. Most platforms, there's literally an arrow button where you can text someone the link of the episode and they can enjoy it. Please do that for us. You can rate it. Hey, at the time I'm recording this today, we just hit 20 five star ratings on Apple Podcasts.

And then finally, you can buy me a glass of wine. You can buy producer Catherine a bourbon. We are working hard over here and loving every minute of it, creating all this wonderful content for you. And so if you'd like to show your appreciation, there's a link in the show notes here to support the podcast.

We sure do appreciate you listening. To be continued next week. But in the meantime, sip well.

This is Sip With Nikki, a production of Take 10 Studios.