OK, being fully honest and transparent here, I'm not going to be able to fully explain "value" in wine as it's a subjective product (wine is). But bear with me here as I talk a little bit about Grenache.
A few weeks ago, Decanter Magazine (the preeminent global wine magazine out of the UK) did their first US domestic Grenache review. Out of all of the Grenaches they tasted, only 21 wines were recommended, all scoring 90pts or above. And of course (since I'm writing about this), Madroña's 2023 Hillside Grenache was one of the wines recommended, getting 91 points. This in itself is exciting, because the majority of the recommended wines were not from California. Ours was also the only Grenache from the Sierra Foothills. But this is not the point (no pun intended) of the writing here.
When I started looking at the wines recommended, I became curious about what each wine costs by the bottle. So I made up a spreadsheet with winery, region, points awarded and price (which was a lot harder to find out since I had to go to each winery's webpage...and some are very exclusive!). In the end, the average price of all the Grenaches was $68.86/bottle. The most expensive wine was $105/bottle. The least expensive by far was our 2023 Grenache at $26.
For grins, I calculated the average points/$ and the $/point. From there, I could determine, using this set of recommended wines what Madroña's 91 point Grenache should cost. We should be charging $67.85 for each bottle instead of $26. OR....if we keep the $26 price point, how many points should be awarded to this wine, given the dollar & point calculation? It turns out that instead of 91 points, our Grenache should be awarded 244 points on a 100 point scale!
Now this is all fun to figure out, and our Grenache is truly a great value. But the real agenda for me is to have wine consumers consider the true value in the wines they are buying. As one travels around El Dorado county, they're not seeing pricing that will break the bank. For us, keeping pricing reasonable is part of our sustainability model where our winery is part of the community, selling a product the locals can afford and enjoy. Could we get richer (or be less poor) if we sold our wines at $60 a bottle or more? I suppose we could although I think that would be taking advantage of our local community.
As the holidays come up, just remember the value of the wines up here in the El Dorado appellation produced by wineries with passion. You'll find great wine at great prices while supporting the community!
Oh, and do you need a 244-point Grenache at $26/bottle? Click here and order some!