Winesday with The Wine Shop – Pricing Wine
Dan and Ellen O’Connell at The Wine Shop in Koloa. Photo courtesy of The Wine Shop.
Tasting Kauai is happy to partner with the O’Connells for Winesday with The Wine Shop. Owners Dan and Ellen O’Connell are a delightful couple whose passion for wine is infectious, their knowledge is vast, and their service is friendly. Their beautiful store carries everything from wine and spirits to gourmet foods and sweet treats. Check in with Tasting Kauai every Wednesday to learn about their favorites. ¡Salud!Are cheap jugs of wine as good as the expensive single vineyard wines? That is the million-dollar question. Let’s break it down by cost.
Inexpensive wines are generally made from bulk purchases of red and white wine grapes, or these wines come from a large growing area such as California, which has thousands and thousands of acres of grapevines growing for the sole purpose of making large quantities of wine. The bulk purchases of grapes are generally fruit that was not purchased under contract by wineries for that particular growing year, or fruit that did not quite make the winemaker’s final cut for their vintage.
A perfect case in point of bulk purchases is the renowned Two Buck Chuck. The winemaker sourced a surplus of quality juice and bottled it for his wines sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s stores.
Another source of wines are brought to us by a Negotiant, which is a French term for a negotiator. Say your family has owned a vineyard for 600 years. As your family grows over the years, your portion of the vineyard decreases. In some cases, you could own only one or two rows of vines, or even less. So, in comes the Negotiant to pay you for your ownership of the vineyard. The Negotiant then makes the wine and bottles it under his name. Louis Jadot of France is a great example of this.As we move to the more expensive tiers of wines, you will find that the grapes are grown and the wine is produced on the winery’s own estate. The factors contributing to the higher costs including maintaining the land, as well as labor, production and overhead costs of the winery.
Now comes the biggest question, is a $100 bottle of wine worth the price and the answer is yes! Can you find a better bottle of wine for less and the answer is yes! Remember every person’s palate is different. We just scratched the surface of the age-old question about the cost of wine versus the quality so come to The Wine Shop and let’s talk wine!
Dano and Ellen O’Connell
The Wine Shop is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. On the first Saturday of each month from 4 to 7 p.m., they host monthly wine tastings. For more information call 808-742-7305 or visit www.thewineshopkauai.com. The shop is located just across the street from the Koloa Post Office.