WINE WISDOM

A Word On Cult Wines

by Ed Schwartz

Recently, Brad Pitt, whom I understand is a Hollywood celebrity of some sort, purchased a small table for $239,000. It was carved out of one block of pure, white Carrera marble by a noted Dutch designer named Jeroen Verhoeven. Seems like a lot of moola for a marble table but, then again, Brad and his more famous wife, Angelina Jolie, won’t have to worry about water stains on this item. Shipping from London was extra — a lot extra.

The cost of this table is amusing and clearly an outstanding example of conspicuous consumption, a phrase coined by the famous University of Chicago economist, Thorstein Veblen in his seminal 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class.

This was a bestselling book at the time and was the first serious critique of consumerism. Veblen was quite harsh on big spenders. Just one example — he scorned using expensive sterling silver flatware for dining. He argued that many other dining utensils were cheaper and better. He thought studying philosophy was a waste of time because it had no economic impact. Wonder what he would have thought about someone plunking down $5,000 dollars for a single bottle of a “cult” red wine. I can see Veblen having an apoplectic fit!

Ah, the subject of cult wines. These wines are written about and discussed until the brain turns to mush. Let us examine this genre.

Cult wines are in a class by themselves — these wines are extremely expensive, garner extremely high scores, are extremely rare and so are extremely difficult to find, yet alone accumulate. The group is limited, in reality, to no more than about 30 wines in the world — max. In this hyper-rarified wine world, one would find perhaps 10 to 15 California Cabernets — depending on what is hotter than hot — and virtually all from the Napa Valley, and 10 or so French wines, mostly First Growth Bordeaux from spectacular years.

Most of these wines cost $500 or more a bottle climbing to the hyper-rarified level of $5,000. The very rarity of these wines, some as low as 250 cases a year, makes those who want them and can afford them want them even more.  Each bottle ought to come with a copy of Veblen’s book, but no incentive is needed by this very exclusive group of wine lovers. Besides, it might spoil the fun.

This column will take no issue with those who can and want to spend $1000 for a single bottle of wine and store it in the cellar forever because it’s too expensive to drink. Happy hunting.  This column will take no issue with those that say they would rather take that same $1000 and purchase 50 bottles of a very good assortment of wines and enjoy drinking them over a period of time. Excellent idea! 

I have no issue with those who would not deign to spend more that $15 for a bottle of very decent wine. Swell! This column, in fact, loves all people who love wine regardless of the price — this is for equal opportunity drinkers. However, one does wonder why someone would spend $1000 for a bottle of wine one would never drink because it is too expensive and once consumed is worth nothing but bragging rights.

But one thing for sure. When the subject of cult wines comes up in wine conversation, and it almost always does, passions run high. And, if dueling were allowed, many of these discussions would be settled early in the morning by epée at close range.

For this luxury issue, let us now cult to the chase.  Cult wines are nothing new. A fellow wine writer, Steve Pitcher, suggests that Château Haut-Brion was the world’s first cult wine. As early 1660, the wine was wildly popular in London and from the diary of Samuel Pepys in 1663, “I drank a sort of French wine called Ho Byran that hath a good and most particular taste I never met with.”

These days, the most expensive cult wines come from France, notably the unclassified Bordeaux, Château Le Pin. The 2005 vintage of this singular red wine is about $4,400 a bottle and is available at several wine merchants. Château Petrus is up for grabs for about $5,000.  For those who prefer Burgundy, there’s the Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Romanée Conti, that will set you back, or set you up, for $7,000 give or take. The great First Growth Bordeaux from the 2005 vintage are in the $1,000 and up range but can’t be called “cult” in the true sense because several thousands of cases are produced.

In California, cult wines seem like a veritable bargain, anywhere from $500 or so to over $1,000 for a current vintage. Most wine mavens consider the top California cult wines are, in alphabetic order, Abreu, Araujo, Colgin, Dalla Valle, Robert Foley, Gemstone, Harlan Estate, Paul Hobbs, Merus, Schrader Cellars, Screaming Eagle and Sloan.

These wines are all Cabernet-based and all from Napa. Really superb wines like Caymus, Opus One, Ridge Montebello, and Phelps Insignia are just as good as these “cult” wines but, because production is higher, the prices are generally below $200 a bottle, and so are easy to obtain. “Easy to obtain” takes them out of cult status, although their high scores are generally equal to the cults.

Sad to say, or proud to say, I’ve only tasted one cult wine from the above list, several vintages of Château Petrus, and it was superb. But years ago, I was at a remarkable tasting of one of the great cult wines in the world that some wine lover have never heard of. It was a Spanish wine, Vega Sicilia, a winery founded in 1864 by Don Eloy Lacandas y Chaves. It was a vertical tasting of 20 vintages! The wines were simply amazing and even more amazing because tastings like these rarely happen; the wines are in such demand.

Now, if all that talk has left a strange taste in your mouth, I have a new product for you. It is dubbed Domaine de Canton and if you love the taste of fresh ginger, this is really something special. It’s made from very fine French Cognac (is there any other?) and baby ginger.  It is, in fact, the world’s first ginger liqueur. It comes in a bamboo-like bottle. Wow!

Ed Schwartz has been involved in many aspects of fine wine for 30 years and has worked with top wineries in California, Italy and France. His writings on wine, food and travel have appeared in many publications.

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