I know this may be an oxymoron to some, but I have see qualty wine produced in large volume. Two years ago at WOPN winemakers symposium there was a great pinot that shocked winemakers by being fermented in a 10,000gal tank. Most pinot producers in CA ferment in 1200gal tanks or even smaler.

I think people do well in wine sales because either they do a good job selling it (ie Jim Clendenen, Kim Crawford, Randall Graham) or other people buzz about all the scores and exclusivity of a wine. Unfortunately, many people making/selling wine have nothing “special” and say nothing out of the ordinary, hoping to get scores and get others to do the buzzing for them.

I think making good wine can be done on a larger production scale and I would argue that having many people drinking your wine could be the next challenge for aspiring winemakers. As well as listening to the consumer and taking a cult following into the next level where people identify with your brand because you fulfill there needs, like say Apple computers or Harley Davidson.

Thank you both for your insightful posts.

I agree completely that glory generally follows significant risk (which people like to call vision in hindsight). I’ve felt for several years now that jumping on the Cal Cab
wagon was a bit ill-conceived for two reasons. First, if you truly love your craft and the process of winemaking and winegrowing then you would, presumably, not wish to limit yourself to an extremely narrow conception of what great wine can be and to follow lock-step with the celebrity “consultants” that one would undoubtedly seek out if trying to achieve such a status. Second, there is the least potential for long-term success and growth in the most competitive and crowded corners of any market. There will only ever be one Harlan and Harlan has been Harlan for many more years than any new up-start. They have experience and history on their side. While new Cult wineries might aspire to be the NEXT Harlan, if they do end up being successful, without doubling the number of prospective buyers of $300 Cab, they will have effectively split their market in half. Those buyers might be out there again someday, but as you point out Steve, they certainly won’t be doubling during the next several years. While the potential profit margin is high for such a venture, it seems like the path of most resistance and a rather uninspired one to boot.

Given all this, the hard part is leaping off the ledge to do something more creative. Harder still is getting others to leap with you (both as financial backers and prospective buyers). I’m proud to say (at least at the moment) that I’ve chosen the path less traveled as our goal is to develop a benchmark Spanish varietal house (Tempranillo, Garnacha, Albarino). Mostly mountain Napa vines for the reds and Carneros for the white (at least for the foreseeable future – I think the Gabilan range is actually the right place in California to grow Tempranillo).

In some ways, this brings us back full-circle to the original posting. One of the suggested weaknesses of Wedgwood was a lack of brazen creativity and re-invention. A failure to push the envelope. I agree with this and I think that it’s this kind of behavior that put Cal wines on the map in the first place. It’s the excitement surrounding and the momentum behind doing something new that made the now-classics the classics. This point was really driven home in your New Classic Winemakers, Steve.

5 years ago, if I thought I had great fruit (maybe even Tempranillo) and some winemaking skill and was putting Napa on the label, I would have found the heaviest bottle I could, dipped the top in wax, thrown up a website that said almost nothing about the wine but offered a chance to sign up for the “waiting list”, and released 300 cases at $85 or $100 per bottle.

Now it’s a little trickier, and probably for the best (at least for value and quality delivered to the consumer). Louis suggested focusing on high-end restaurant sales and social marketing like blogging to develop interest and I think that both are great ideas (although tough in a struggling economy). Steve, you mentioned price point as a way to add value to a product.

But in a more general sense, what are the qualities of a Cal winery that makes you stop and say, “They are doing it right. They have the potential to be the next classic.”? If the Napa Cab Cult “look and feel” is out, what qualities WOULD get you excited (aside from great wine, which is a given)? How does one build prestige into a wine while avoiding the leftover stale aftertaste of the Napa Cult Cab era?

I know it’s an impossible question to answer, and tough to even approach, but it’s fascinating to me to hear the “gut response” from those in the critic, blogger, retailer etc. world.

Sorry for the long post. Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated!

Remember that Bordeaux prices (particularly first-growth) tend to rely much more heavily on vintage quality to determine their pricing than California wines. California cult wines generally rely on two things, creating demand by limiting supply, and viral marketing stemming from either a great rating, or perhaps sitting on the right table, in the right restaurant at the right time. First growth Bordeaux will always command a hefty price tag, and although yes, economy/international currency strengths will effect pricing to a degree, I doubt very much that you will see a drastic decrease from year to year based on much other than good vintage vs. off year.

As far as building the name of a California cult wine. . . here is my suggestion. As a retailer, I have seen the fine wine hit, and no one has been affected more than the $300 CA wines. I still (yes, in December) sold two cases of 2005 petrus for almost 30k each. I still sold almost all of my 05 first growth. My 05 DRC and single vineyard Barolos still flew. I agree with Steve that the “cult bubble” has burst. The market has become Saturated with “show me” wines like Sloan, Winter, Araujo, Scarecrow…. etc etc. So much so that is has become passe’. My first advice is to focus extremely heavily on local restaurants. Almost all whisper campaigns in wine begin in one of two places, NYC restaurants or CA restaurants. You have no idea how many calls I get from clients in NY or CA at all hours of the night asking if I was familiar with wine “XYZ” out of CA because they were at “Exclusive Restaurant #354″ and saw it on so and so’s table. You also need to enlist guys like Steve. The blogging community carries a lot of weight in the new frontiers of wine.. to some degree even more so than spectator or RP. Forget about the sizzle. Take out the extra layers of glass and fancy packaging. Sell the STEAK. Great wine will still sell, just don’t make more than you can move.

Cheers,
Louis