[Don Plumley]

I will be the first to admit that there are Trophy Wines and Not-ever-worth-it-stupid-Bordeaux. However, there are a few things:

1) Just as some people can't tell (or don't care) about the difference between a Ford and Ferrari; it's no big deal that you don't appreciate the difference between a hand crafted wine of only 150 cases production and even a moderate bottle from a million gallon producer. One comes from a workshop and one comes from a refinery.

2) There are some fundamental economics and inputs that are no different between basic transportation and luxury cars as there are between bulk wines and premium wines. A) Quality of inputs: Grapes range in price from $500 per ton to $10,000 per ton. Some is supply and demand, but there are obvious differences in how they are farmed and accordingly, how they taste. B) Production costs to make small lots of wine are incredibly higher. Barrels from Burgundy cost $1,100 each and we use them for four years. Our glass (bottles) cost per bottle is close to the cost per case for retail wines. C) You can't amortize as much total production cost over small lots nearly as efficiently as over 10's of thousand of cases.

3) Luxury branding. A bottle of Chanel perfume costs much more than a bottle of drugstore Eau de truckstop.

4) Drink what you love. Don't worry about points, prices or pundits. It's your palate, it's your liver.

I care as much about good wine and good food as I do my Porsche. It makes me a sad to hear people brag that they can't tell the difference and therefore intimate that there is something wrong with higher priced beverages.