What really makes one bottle of red wine so much more expensive than lesser ones?!
And is it true that many of the less expensive ones contain more added sulfites to prolong their shelf life because the grapes are not as good of quality or i dont understand , anyone know?
Thanks!
Answers: What is it that determines quality exactly of a red wine?
And is it true that many of the less expensive ones contain more added sulfites to prolong their shelf life because the grapes are not as good of quality or i dont understand , anyone know?
Thanks!
The cost of wine is contributed to many factors. Supply and demand, like most things in life is one of them. Of course that's just basic economics.
Weather, geographic area, bottling, marketing, recipe are all important factors in the cost of the wine.
The vintage or year that the grape was harvested can play a big role. If the year was dry and hot your crop yeild will be quite a bit less than a year that was moderate and had decent rainfall. A vineyard that needs to use irrigation rather than have a decent rain fall will have increased costs. If winter was relatively mild and didn't kill off insect nests they may have to increase the use of insecticides(chemical or natural).
Different places on the planet also can make a difference. I've had some incredible French and Italian wines that have left my wallet pretty light, but have also had some really good reds from South Africa, Argentina and Chile. A lot of it is the length of the growing season. You're going to have better quality yeilds if you have land near a water source and fertile soil.
Your better wines also tend to come from vines that are quite a bit older. Generally speaking, if the vine is 20+ years old you're looking at some of the finest wines out there. It takes a lot of time and care to keep a vine producing for that long. The vineyards will also cut some of the bunches of grapes and discard them to allow more of the nutrients to reach the grapes that they feel will offer the best juice.
The way a vineyard stores the wine while aging can contribute to the overall cost. French oak is the most expensive and tends to give your full bodied reds and chardonnays a much better flavor than American oak. If a vineyard uses steel barrels it's going to be much less expensive since they don't need to replace them nearly as often as oak.
Adding more sulfites doesn't necessarily increase shelf life. the biggest enemy to wine is air. Some of the better wines tend to use synthetic cork to keep the bottle air tight.
I also want to point out that just because a wine is expensive doesn't make it great. Since taste can be so subjective it's best to visit a store or vineyard that offers tastings and go from there. Keep an eye out for those wines south of the Equator. They're a great value!
A nicer label? Or just supply and demand....they all taste similiar anyway.
Sometimes cheaper wines are made from second pressings of the grapes.. but generally, wines are priced according to how much the producer can get away with.
posher vineyards, rarer/harder to grow grapes, the method its made (hard or easy) the age of it. numerous other things can affect the cost.
It has very little to do with the quality of the wine. It it is mostly about the rarity of the wine. If the wine maker produced 200,000 cases of merlot, that wine will go for between $8 and $15 per bottle. If a wine maker produces 1,000 cases that same wine is a $50 bottle.
Obviously, the wine has to be good to sell but if I had to put a factor on how wine is priced it would be:
75% availability
15% taste
10% advertising and marketing
Quality, types of grapes used some are harder to get then others, different regions, fancier labels, established winery,
age of the wine even 2-5yrs can increase the value of the wine. It also comes down to what people will pay for the bottle of wine look at Cristal champagne for instance it is like 800 dollars a bottle but celebrities drink it like it is water.
It also is supply and demand if the wine is popular sometimes the price goes up.
I do not think sulfites have anything to do with it it comes down to the above mentioned aspects and one last one is the availability of the wine if it hard to get then it will cost more.
Not in Germany...here red and white wines cost the same and the prices are from 2€ up for a bottle and you get a good quality red wine for about 3€ (4,50$)
Possibly one of the best red wines in the World is Barolo.
Barolo is made from the Pinot Noir Grape, in the Piedmont and around the Val D'Aosta. The ordinary vintages come in at about 3 times the price of the "good" plonks. The better vintages occupy an exponential price range.
One of the reasons, apart from the fact it is so tasty, is that Barolo is traditionally fermented and matured in batches of no more than 500 bottles. Therefore the amount of manpower, dedicated to its TLC is pretty huge, compared with the more industrial wines.
I remember (sort of) with great affection, my late afternoon tasting sessions with my dedicated vintner, in Ivrea!
What determines the quality?
There is a lot that invluence wine quality. The soil, sunshine, rainfall, slope at which the vineyard is planted and lots more.
Then there is the winemaking process. Quality of grapes, yeast used, temp while fermenting, time spent in barrels, quality of the barrels, etc.
A good wine is made in the vineyard. You can a bad wine from good grapes, but you can not make a good wine from bad grapes.
Less expensive wines is most likely to be from less known wineries or wine regions. An example would be wines from France or Australia might be more expensive than wines from Eastern Europe. But that does not (always) make it a better wine.
In the end it is really about your tastes and what you want from a wine.
Hope this helps.
The more difficult it is to pronounce the name, the more expensive the wine.
lmao!!!!
It is just like the difference between an Chevrolet economy car and the Corvette or if you are in Europe, a BMW to a Peugeot. Usually, there is more time and experience put into picking the right grapes, from very good vineyards and giving to a very experienced wine maker. He or she takes their personal experience and turns these materials into something special.
Granted, it is all about personal preference. I like bottles that are $10.00 ea and I like bottles that are more. Usually, it is about who is paying for it! (ha-ha)
I believe it is in the balance between the age of the tannins and the fruit or sugar. For example, my favorite Cabernet is called Abacus and it is made by blending Cabernet wines produced from different years. The combination of soft tannins from older wines and the bold tannins and fruit from younger wines gives the blend the best of both. Granted, this runs about $400.00 per bottle and is hard to get.
There are so many factors -- and sulfites are not relevant at all.
1) Is the wine in a new oak barrel. If so, it will add about $3 to the cost of a bottle
2) How many grapes are produced per hectare, more juice, cheaper the wine, lower production better the flavor and quality
3) How popular is the wine and how much is made. Wine lovers the world over want top Bordeaux wines and their price is inthe hundreds per bottle as a result.
supply & demand. quality, y do u think people pay sky high price on cars like ferrari, jaguar, instead of fiat, ford? they are same company.