'You spent £55 on a bottle of wine?' My friend's voice rose an octave as he asked the question. 'Actually, I bought two,' I confessed. What can I say? Wine critics spend hours tasting mediocre wines and I'd just experienced something that made me want to burst into song. The 1998 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée, Les Genevrières is worth every penny of that £55.
Well, it is to me anyway. Before you dismiss me as a vinous elitist with more dosh than brain cells, let me ask you a couple of questions. How much do you spend on a haircut? Most of my female friends part with at least £40. And what about that new car, whose value dropped by £2,000 as you drove it off the forecourt? People spend money on all sorts of things. I just happen to spend my spare cash on wine.
And believe me, by the standards of the fine wine business, £50 is not expensive. You may have read about the hapless couple who got stung for an £800 bottle of 1966 Chteau Margaux in a London restaurant recently when 'all' they wanted was a £160 claret. And what would you make of the fact that the 2000 Chteau Pétrus costs over £1,000 a bottle? Surely even Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber would blink before he handed over his Gold Card. Who knows? With wine, as with many things, value for money is subjective, especially when it's clouded by matters like snobbery, branding, peer pressure and the desire to put one over on your neighbours.
Individual wines mean different things to different people. Is the 1999 Harlan Estate red from the Napa Valley worth nearly £300 a bottle? It isn't to me, but in the US, where Harlan is considered a cult wine, you have to beg the owner to put you on the waiting list. Significantly, California cults have next to no takers in the UK.
How much do I personally spend on a bottle of wine? Well, even for me £50 is an exception. Most of what I drink at home costs between £6 and £20, which is where I think true value for money lies. (Remember that duty and transport costs are fixed, so a wine at £5.99 should be better value than one at £2.99.) This isn't to say that good wine is impossible to find under a fiver, but it's increasingly rare.
If I spend more than £20, I want to be sure that the wine is worth it. For a start, I want to know that it was crafted by a winemaker, rather than dreamt up by a marketing team. In other words, I want to know that I am paying for the liquid in the bottle, rather than perceived rarity or hype. Sadly, shelling out £20 is not always a guarantee of quality, so do try to taste before you buy, or find a wine merchant or critic whom you trust.
Talking of which, my own rule is to discount anything that's been well reviewed by US critics, whose enthusiasm inflates prices. I also avoid cult wines, blue chip wines and anything produced in a 'vintage of the century': a good tip is to buy wines from very good producers in 'off' vintages.
Some areas offer better value than others. Rioja is generally a cheaper bet than Priorat or Ribera del Duero in Spain, for example, while in France, the Languedoc, southern Rhône and Loire are richer ground for bargain hunters than Bordeaux or Burgundy. Germany is under-priced, so are port, sherry, madeira and parts of Italy. The New World, on the other hand, offers very little that's worth the loot over £20. I've had the odd stunner from California, Oregon, South Australia, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa and Argentina, but if I'm going to buy fine wine, I invariably end up spending my money in Europe. So pass me a corkscrew: it's time to drink that Vosne-Romanée.
