(Reprinted from a previous newsletter. Thanks, Tom! xoxox)While you're here you may want to ask, as several people already have, "just what is a premium wine, anyhow?" It's a fair question, and one that I won't promise to answer fully. But I will give it a shot, so here goes.
The most obvious answer it that "premium" means the same as "expensive", as in "I paid a premium price for this bottle of wine." In most, if not all, cases that would be correct. Premium wines are expensive. Whether or not you can establish a price point at which a wine can fairly be called "premium" may depend on your reference point.
Part of the appeal of high-end wines is the mystique. Buy a bottle of a 500-case production wine from Napa, especially if you had to get on a waiting list and "bend" Florida's shipping laws to obtain it, and you might think yourself a member of a pretty exclusive club. If you are buying Bordeaux futures for wine that you won't even see for another year or two, you probably are in a pretty exclusive club (and we need to talk!)
Many times I've heard a wine afficionado say with much glee something along the lines of "I have the only three bottles of this in the state!" Clearly, the lack of availability of a wine adds to its image, and to its "premium" status. By the way, I never mind hearing a customer say this. If I helped them obtain those three bottles, I've made a friend. If not, maybe they will share!
But exclusivity, too, is only part of the story. There are a number of wines that are hard to come by, and that are also very expensive, that are really not rare at all. Let's look at Opus One, that fabled wine that's the result of a collaberation between Robert Mondavi and the late Baron Phillipe de Rothschild.
First, at over $160 a bottle, you'd expect that not only would the wine be fantastic, but that it would be hard to find. The 2000 vintage got 89 points from Wine Spectator, respectable, but not world-class. And as for availability, how many bottles would you like?
Total production was over 20,000 cases, which is why it can be found in supermarkets and even warehouse clubs. Yet we still have people come in the store and ask if we have it. The distribution channel limits the number of bottles that any one outlet can obtain, using obscure logic that only their accountants and the winery's marketing people can fully understand.
Is it a premium wine? Of course. It has something that it would take a major PR campaign to create: reputation. It has something else, too: history. Previous vintages scored higher (in some cases much higher) and 2000 was a weak vintage for many California reds (2001 is coming in much better if you are collecting.)
It may be reputation more than anything that turns an ordinary (or extraordinary) wine into a "premium" wine. Sometimes that's the result of history, sometimes it's the result of marketing. I'd tend to value the former more than the latter, but just because a wine is heavily marketed doesn't mean it's not a great wine.
If a winery (or winemaker) creates superb wines, year after year, the reputation of a new wine is easier to establish. It doesn't hurt if Robert Parker or James Laube give it a great review, too.
For many, if not most, wines that are considered "premium" the final measure is ageworthiness: how will this wine age, and hopefully improve, when carefully cellared. This is important for serious collectors who have temperature- and humidity-controlled cellars and buy hundreds or thousands of bottles. Some of these collectors view their wine as an investment that will increase in value over time. For that to happen, the quality (and reputation) of the wine must go up over time, that is, the wine must age well.
For most of us, if we purchase premium wines at all, we do it for a special occasion. That may be for gift giving, for a special meal, or to commemorate a birthday or anniversary.
What we expect is a wine that is memorable, one that is worthy of the occasion. Price was less of a consideration than for our everyday wine, because the occasion was special. The wine should lend it's mystique to the occasion, and the joy of sharing the special bottle should be enhanced by the quality of the wine and the knowledge that you are experiencing the excellence of a "premium" wine.
