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| (Not the author.) |
You'd have the Most Popular and Class Clown and Best Hair and Cutest Couple and all the rest of those impossible expectations-setting labels that hardly ever pan out. But you'd also have some that would spark real debate, like Most Likely To Succeed and (though only a yearbook put together by my mother would have it) a Most Likely To Disappoint.
The Most Likely To Succeed category, certainly worthy of a lively discussion and with many contenders, will have to wait for another piece. But there are too many data points pointing in the same direction to ignore in the Most Likely To Disappoint bracket anymore.
Napa is, without a doubt, one of the greatest places on earth to grow Cabernet. And pockets of the valley have the capacity to produce world class examples of other varieties, too. Carneros Chardonnay and Calistoga Zin, for example, rock it hard. So, it's not as though there's a ceiling on potential here. Not at all. But somewhere along the way the hype curve surged as the quality curve took a dive and prices continued to climb. In the world of investing, a chart like this is a bellwether for a correction.
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| Napa Hype and Prices Surpassed Quality A Long Time Ago |
Today, the average price of a bottle of wine in Napa Valley (including Sauvignon Blancs and everything else) is in the neighborhood of $43. Ahem? And when you venture into what Napa is best known for, that number is closer to $65 or so. Wow. That is a lot of money for a bottle of wine. Unless, of course, it's worth it.
But very few of them are worth it.
Somehow, though, this Disney Land of wine remains held in the highest regard by critics whose judgment is unencumbered by the nuisance of prices or the hundreds of bottlings that don't make their reference cut. Amazing. There are a dozen places to fix blame for this, but looking at the evidence is enough to persuade even the staunchest of advocates to search elsewhere for quality and value. And evidence abounds. Just flip to the back of any wine spectator and check out the reviews for Napa wines. The prices are as astoundingly high as the QPRs (quality to price ratios) are low.
More and more, consumers are choosing bottles based on where they came from - a very positive trend. People know to look for bombs from south Australia, lighter food-friendly wines from Tuscany, and refreshing whites from the Loire. All of these hold good potential and low risk in store. But when someone wanders over to the California Cabernet shelves to pick something up to go with that steak, they are strutting into waters rife with higher price tags and a higher likelihood for disappointment.
For this reason, Napa Valley gets the Most Likely To Disappoint spot in the yearbook.
Thankfully, a year book is limited to just that - a year - so, it's not a permanent condition. (Hell, I was named Shyest in my class.) Perhaps the sway of the market will help Napa pan out of this phase and live up to its potential soon. In the meantime, you'll find me in the Italian wine section.