A few days ago, I was listening to a radio program, Marketplace, which has a host of interesting stories of the day regarding the economy. (Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about the yield on 30-year-bonds as the true pulse of the US economy...but finally I'd get to use my macro-economics degree!). Instead, they had an interesting story regarding US consumers and how they are embracing "value" (and showing it off).
The crux of the story was about how in the past, people were often embarrassed by buying generic brands at a store, hiding them under "name-brand" products. However now, it's common and even fashionable to let people know you are proud of getting brands. This then equated to "value", the same product at a better price.
Wine, though, has always seemed to be in a world of its own, being a "product" with a subjective, individualized reception of its value. A limited production wine from a famous region and a great vintage might be a great value at $600...for some people. Ironically, you could probably find a wine similar in taste (if tasted blind) in the $25 range, at least for most people. If you add in the experience, however, that someone attaches to a certain wine (because you bought it in Italy or it was the wine you had at your wedding), then the value has shifted to memories and feelings (which I've argued is the real value of wine anyway).
But why bring this up? Well, personally, I've always felt our wines, being Estate Grown, older vines, naturally (organically) farmed with small lot productions, are wines of value. Are we the most successful winery having been started some 50 years ago? Certainly not (at least from a dollars and cents point of view). There are wineries that have skyrocketed to fame and success that started much more recently than we. But what we've always tried to do is to keep the pricing at a level the locals of El Dorado County can afford, as it's been you who have kept us in business all these years.
Hopefully "value" will become a sought-after characteristic in wine in the future. I look at wineries offering 50-70% off their retail pricing, or those offering "free" shipping. It's always made me wonder if the wines are just overpriced to begin with if they can offer those "deals". Who knows.
But it is interesting talking to new customers here in the tasting area at Madroña, questioning whether our wines can actually be of any great quality at the prices we are asking. If the expectation is that good wine starts at say $50, then sure, they'll be leery of any of our Madroña wines (skipping entirely over the age of the vines, own-rooted stock, high-elevation terroir and the spectacular decomposed volcanic soils of our vineyards). That is until they taste them! And there's value in that too!
OK, so value comes in a lot of different forms. And I would say that our Madroña wines are as far from generic as you can possibly find. But when you take our Merlot ($22) or our Riesling ($20) or our Malbec ($28) to the next dinner party, show it off! You'll be one of the cool kids now! And then make some memories!!!
