I get 10-20 wine solicitations a day…minimum. I have always received a fair amount but, as of late, I have been paying closer attention. I am a bit of a technophobe. It always takes me a while to adopt a new technology. I got wine emails for years before I risked my credit history to purchase wine on-line. At first, there seemed to be something inherently wrong about using the Internet to buy something like wine. Part of the experience and enjoyment of wine is going to the local wine merchant. It takes years and thousands of dollars to cultivate this nearly sacred bond. Things are shared with a trusted wine peddler that aren’t with most purveyors of goods or services. They know one’s tastes and get a small window into one’s personal life. More time is shared with them than any other shop-keep save perhaps the barber. A level of trust develops. One is open to accepting their advice. Often the success or failure of a night with friends rests in their hands. A good wine shop with an excellent salesperson close to home is no small thing in the life of a wine junky.
So I was slow to betray my beloved brick and mortar wine shop and move to the on-line dark-side. The more the wine emails piled into my in-box though, the more compelling they became. The wine world is so vast and varied, why limit your view of it? I could see the inventory of ten wine stores a day in minutes. Two years ago, I finally broke down and started to buy some wine on-line. At first, I only bought things on sale and free shipping was a must. As I became more and more comfortable, I started to order more frequently. I went from one extreme to the other. It got a little out of control and I had to stop. On-line wine shopping can be habit forming, be careful.
So now I read all the emails, try to get a handle on what is going on in the market place, learn what I can, and only buy wine strategically on-line. I relegate my impulse buying to my favorite local shops. This has worked well for me and this brings me finally to my point.
It’s rather obvious but hard to execute. The economy is terrible. Money is difficult to come by and unfortunately wine is just a little less important than the rent, mortgage, food and clothing. The flood of information one can get from the Internet without looking for it gives those that care to look a good picture of the market. Value, value value all the websites scream. 90 point Wine Spectator wines for $10. Free shipping on six or more bottles has become standard. On and on the deals roll in. I believe two things are happening here. First, despite a noticeable rise in quality in wine across the board, I feel that there is some serious, Ivy League style, grade inflation happening in the marketplace. I understand that there are thousands upon thousands of wines out there and the potential for many of them to be excellent is possible. However, this is a relative marketplace and I believe our friend the Bell Curve applies. The truly excellent and the truly terrible are very lonely out on the tails while there is a whole heap of wine in the fat middle. Now, as I said above, I believe the entire curve has shifted up making all wine in the marketplace “better” but this economy and perhaps wine’s growing popularity has erroneously pushed the middle of the Bell Curve towards the “excellent” tail. O.k. wine is being pushed to good. Good wine is pushed toward very good and so on and so forth.
Second, I believe the economy has changed so much so fast that wine merchants were caught off guard. Over the past few years wine has been flying off the shelves. Folks cared less for value and more for volume. To accommodate this, wine shops increased inventory across the board and maybe stretched a little at the top and bottom of the market i.e. bought a little too much “value” wine and a little too much premium. Now they have got to get rid of it, hence all the sales particularly targeted at these two categories.
What should we do? My impulse, like everyone else, is to pull back. Buy low priced, highly rated value gems. Fundamentally, however, this is totally wrong. What I and everyone else should be doing is to take advantage of this situation. 2005 and 2007 are widely regarded as excellent vintages around the world…2005 in particular. The market is awash with wine, cheap and dear, yet it is all offered at significant discounts. My suggestion, although anti-American, is sound. Buy less of the “best” wine that can be afforded. It is an anecdotal as well as a documented fact that there is a correlation between price and quality in wine. There are exceptions of course, but in general, the more one pays, the better it tastes. So BUY, BUY, BUY, but buy the top, not the bottom. Skip the value stuff that is drinkable, enjoyable and forgettable. In this market, two bottles of $50 wine is worth far more than ten bottles of $10 wine. Follow this strategy and though less wine may be consumed today, it times like these in which great wine sellers are built.
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