The luxury market has driven up the prices of all iconic wines. Prices that are too high may drive new generations away from wine consumption, and this would be a big problem for the future of this industry. Fortunately, in Italy we can still drink very well at affordable prices.
A personal memory and a different era
Way back in 1979, when I was just twenty-four years old and still a college student a few months behind in my degree, I remember working for a month putting advertising flyers in the windshield wipers of parked cars to earn enough money to buy myself a bottle of Biondi Santi’s 1964 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 1964 in a wine shop, which at the time cost a hundred thousand lire and was the most expensive Italian wine in an absolute sense. A very high figure for the time, almost a quarter of the average employee’s salary. If we brought it back to the days of today it would be roughly a figure between 350 and 400 euros.
The global market and price explosion
A lot, of course, but not comparable to the prices that some iconic wines have since reached and are sometimes two or three times higher. And this is true for Italy, for some Brunellos, for several Barolos and Barbarescos, for a few Supertuscans and a couple of Amarones. If you go to France things are even more obvious, with the most famous Burgundies and some Bordeaux, especially Pomerol, now traveling at several thousand euros a bottle.
A phenomenon that has depended on several factors, the most important of which probably lies in the fact that the traditional markets of the time have been joined by those of other countries, the United States, Russia, and China especially, causing demand to rise exponentially and consequently also prices.
This means that today a guy of the age I was then, even working hard for a month, could not possibly think of buying with his earnings a bottle comparable to the one I bought. But not only him, also a lot of other people, passionate about the world of wine, who may be willing to spend a few euros on important bottles, but can no longer afford them now.
Wine as a luxury good
It is the luxury market; it has always existed in many sectors, but in the wine sector it has exploded especially in the last two decades, with the consequences that are there for all to see. It is not always the specific responsibility of producers, some of whom have increased their price lists quite a bit over time but rarely to such an extreme extent, but of a speculative supply chain that exploits the situation, grabbing lots of wines that are very famous at origin and then reselling them at impressive mark-ups all over the world, in the so-called big spender sector.
I am not trying to make a moralistic speech, I am just saying that by now certain labels are only in the availability of very wealthy people and that we mere mortals should forget about them. At a time like the one we are living through, and which exacerbates if possible such a phenomenon, the coming year should suggest to those who write, evaluate, taste, as professionals or enthusiasts it makes no great difference, to write, evaluate, taste less and less of those wines, assuming one can, and more and more of those that can then actually be bought and drunk if one wants to be useful to someone and not just strut for the rents of position that the role of insider sometimes grants.
Italy and the wealth of fairly priced wines
What is more, in Italy we have in all probability the widest choice in the world of wines with a formidable quality/price ratio, which does not necessarily mean very low costs, but means good quality at human prices. Just to give an example of an appellation that is perhaps even famous, but not as “stellar” as others in Tuscany, a few weeks ago on DoctorWine we published a small article on Morellino di Scansano. Four delicious wines that cost between 10 and 15 euros in wine shops or online. Think of how many Italian wines are like that, in all regions moreover.
Here, I think that the year to come, and perhaps also the following ones, when I hope like everyone else that this terrible period will end, will be in the world of wine the years of possible wines, of those that will also allow many young people to approach this sector with serenity, cultivating their passion, visiting wineries, each with their own sensitivities and without feeling inadequate even, perhaps above all, economically. It applies, of course, to many other areas as well, but in our world it must be clear to us that not getting the younger generation passionate about it could be a very serious problem, and prices that are too high do not help in the endeavor at all.
