[Don Plumley]

Restaurant sold rare and/or status wines, especially in the New York, Hong Kong and Newport Beach markets are reaching stratospheric levels. Way too much money out there. There will always be those that simply buy off the top of the reserve list because of the price and/or to impress. These folks will not appreciate the mechanical merits of an Aston Martin any more than a Prius. I could vent on and on.

Is a $1000 bottle better than a $100 bottle? Depends. At the restaurant, a wine at that price point is probably marked up 4X. And the $100 3X. So you need to make sure you are comparing either the retail or wholesale prices. Regardless, there are some remarkably sublime, wonderful wines that command extraordinary prices. And there are wines that have price driven up by cult demand that are no better than top shelf supermarket wines.

There are fundamentally two inputs to winemaking: Grapes and Barrels. Buy the very best grapes possible, treat them well, and pretty doggone good wine will result. But the beauty of winemaking is sometimes amazing things happen and stellar wines result, sometimes it just does not come out in glass. Some of the wineries are now so driven by scores (and repeating those scores) they have more of a chemistry experiment than winemaking going on (another rant for another time).

Speaking as a Vintner, the most important parameter is what YOU like. Period. Some appreciate the subtleties of a DRC and the price is irrelevant. Some find that a bottle of two buck chuck makes them smile just as well (my father in law, for example). As long as they are drinking wine and having a good time with friends and family, it does not matter how much the bottle costs - high or low. IMHO.