When you’re a wine geek on a small budget, how can you experience some of the most expensive and iconic wines in the world?
Price Ranges & Quality
Most people don’t spend a lot of money buying wine except perhaps for special occasions. This may be because they don’t have the money to do so and/or they don’t know enough about wine to feel comfortable venturing into a higher price bracket. How can you be sure that it’s worth spending more?
First of all, there are some under $15 quality wines that represent their region, variety, vintage and style well. This is what many wine geeks crave the most: a wine that shows a sense of place and diversity to explore and better pair with a variety of foods. However, it takes some knowledge and exploring to find such wines and avoid highly commercial wines that can taste generic and artificial. Chilean wines are a great place to start to find cheap but varietally correct wines, but obviously you will have to explore other regions and styles that may cost more.
If you venture into the $15-50 range, you definitely start to get a more diverse set of wines that have more quality, intensity, complexity, elegance and sometimes ageability. Some of that complexity may be due to the addition of quality oak barrel aging. Some of it is lower yields and other winemaking choices. Just be aware that wines in this price range may also need time to improve such as by integrating the oak and softening the tannins. In addition, if you’re used to only ripe, sugary, cheap commercial wines, it may be jarring at first to taste wines with more sour, earthy, savory, bitter and umami components. It’s like when you were a child and only liked sweets or salty junk food, but you eventually branched out to explore foods like sushi, curry, and higher quality meats and cheeses. It’s the same with wine; You have to develop a palate for it. However, there are still generic, commercial, simple, fruit bomb wines at this price range too.
As you start to spend more than $50, you start to get diminishing returns on many wines due to added costs of marketing, and prestige in addition to more expensive real estate and labor depending where the wine is from. Although many do up the level in consistency, intensity, elegance, etc., there’s inflation from all those above factors and prestigious wineries looking to profit from wealthier clients looking to buy trophy wines. At the same time, some iconic wines are truly otherworldly and deserve all their hype and demand, but sadly most of us can’t afford to taste them.
Being a Wine Geek with a Small Budget
In my wine journey, I started in the lower price range as I began to learn about wine and slowly began to venture into the other ranges as I gained confidence in evaluating what I was tasting. As you start attending tastings or if you have richer wine geek friends, you also get to taste more expensive wines. If you work in the industry, you also get to taste some top wines. However, most of the wines I buy for myself are within the two cheaper ranges given my budget, but that’s still more than a lot of people spend, so I’m always happy to share my wines to help people explore.
That being said, I have bought some bucket list, iconic wines. I do buy wines in the high end range from time to time, and over the years my cellar has grown to include more and more. Some choose to spend more on clothes, electronics, cars, etc. I choose to spend it on wine. Plus, given that many of these higher end wines increase in value over time, I could always justify my purchase saying I could resell them for more if ever I needed the money. Moreover, there are sub-ranges within the high end bracket, so although Petrus might be beyond reasonable for me to buy, Vieux Chateau Certan might be more affordable with similar quality at one tenth of the price but still in the expensive range. Still, many wines are out of my price range on a teacher’s salary.
Other labels & Second Wines
Some iconic, cult wines cost $300-$1,000+ these days: Chateau Latour ($800), Chateau Petrus ($5,000), Sassicaia ($350), Screaming Eagle ($3,000+). If you’re a wine geek with a limited budget, how can you taste any of these wines or know it’s worth buying these wines?
One way is to try the second wine from a producer which can be a quarter or third of the price of the first wine. This is especially common with top Bordeaux. You can get the same expert winemaking and sometimes the same terroir and grapes that just didn’t make the cut, but oftentimes the second wine comes from a different vineyard or younger vines in the same vineyard. It may be a way to get the style or winemaking philosophy of the producer too although the second wine is often intentionally made to drink younger with a different blend. It also depends on the vintage, as some years they may have excess quality fruit and put it in their lower level wines to keep the supply low for their first wines, so a second wine in a great vintage can sometimes surpass the first wine in a bad vintage.
Similarly, one can try a cheaper label of the producer. Big name producers often have other properties in the same region or in other regions. Again, it’s a way to taste the house style, quality, and expertise of the producer for cheaper. For example, Mouton and Lafite have wineries in Chile (Escudo Rojo and Los Vascos) and partnerships with Chilean producers to make relative bargain elite wines like Almaviva at a sixth of the price of their best wines in Bordeaux. Like with second wines, the terroir, style and quality may be different though.
In many cases, a winery produces much pricier single vineyard wines as opposed to a cheaper wine sourced from multiple estate vineyards and/or other sub-appellations. Again, it helps to do some research where the wine is sourced and how it’s made. Single vineyard or single plot wines might be geekier if you want to distinguish the difference between micro terroirs, but sometimes a cheaper blend of multiple estate vineyards with the same winemaking is more balanced and a better deal.
Ultimately 99% of us have some limit to our budget. Therefore, even if you are able to afford a few cases of high end wines, not all of them should be drunk immediately and one needs cheaper options as their everyday wine or cellar defenders to keep you from drinking your best wines too soon. Second wines, other labels or non-single vineyard wines can be a way to go.
Although in some cases I have compared second wines/other labels to their iconic first wine labels, sometimes all I can afford is the second label versions of a producer to extrapolate what their first wine might be like. It should be noted that, there have been a few cases where the style of the second wine has kept me from buying their first wine. This has saved me money. For example, if the second wine was super modern, over-oaked and over the top, I would be less likely to buy the more expensive first wine version. In addition, sometimes the second wine is showing better early on since the first wine is meant to age, so it proves my cellar defender argument.
For this post, I’m tasting other labels of two icons: Chateau Rayas and Chateau Lafleur to guess how close they are to their iconic big brothers.
Tasting Notes
2018 Grand Village Bordeaux Supérieur
This was about $25 in Chile, so it’s probably even cheaper in the US and Europe. Grand Village is sourced from Fronsac and produced by the Guinaudeau Family who also produce Chateau Lafleur in Pomerol, an iconic $1,000+ wine. In fact, the Grand Village estate has been the family estate since 1650. They say Grand Village is sort of like the “village” level wine of Lafleur. Lafleur also produces a more expensive Fronsac based cuvee that used to be called Guinaudeau “G” Acte until the 2017 vintage, but now they call it Chateau Lafleur Les Perrieres. Both wines, especially the Les Perrieres, feature a large percentage of Cabernet Franc, which is also what distinguishes Lafleur from a lot of other Pomerol producers. Finally, Chateau Lafleur also has a second wine called Château Lafleur Les Pensées de Lafleur. Although it comes from the same vineyard as the first wine of Lafleur, it’s grown in an area with more clay, making it more distinct from the first wine; Most of the Lafleur vineyard is gravel dominated.
The label for the Grand Village has changed over the years. It now more clearly shows that it is from Lafleur. 78% Merlot and 22% Bouchet, 30% New Oak. Bouchet is another name for Cabernet Franc in Bordeaux, but sometimes it’s used to distinguish an old, specific local strain of Cabernet Franc that is supposed to be more drought and disease resistant. Therefore, the producers of Lafleur, a wine that features Cabernet Franc, is apt to distinguish their Cabernet Franc as “Bouchet” instead. Other top Bordeaux producers with a lot of Cabernet Franc like Cheval Blanc and Les Carmes Haut Brion often use the same term.
The nose is dominated by oak notes of chocolate, tobacco and cedar. The palate is more fruit driven. It’s plummy and ripe with silky textures. Medium-low acid. There are still tannins to resolve without food, but it’s ok with food. The 15.5% alcohol is felt down the throat and not on the palate, but it’s barely holding it in. It has the texture and fruit profile of higher-end Bordeaux but for a lower price and ultimately less precision and intensity. 91
In comparison to the first wine of Lafleur, they use about the same amount and quality of new oak in both. Lafleur has more Cabernet Franc, usually around 50%. However, the Grand Village Cabernet Franc “Bouschet” clones come from the Lafleur vineyard. The terroir of the Grand Village has clay, limestone and gravel while Lafleur is mostly gravel with some clay and sand. Stylistically, based on descriptions that I’ve read, Lafleur is a ripe, opulent, exotic yet elegant wine with minerality. This Grand Village definitely also shows ripe elegance but obviously on a lower scale of intensity and refinement. It’s barely holding in the alcohol and oak. The higher quality fruit of the first wine should be able to absorb the oak and alcohol better. I’ve better had more elegant vintages of Grand Village in the past though.
2017 Chateau des Tours Côtes du Rhône
This starts at around $50 nowadays although you often see it for twice as much or more because it comes from Chateau Rayas winemaker Emmanuel Reynaud. Rayas is the most famous and expensive Chateauneuf du Pape producer at around $1,500 a bottle. Chateau des Tours is the family estate, and the vineyard is located not too far from Chateauneuf du Pape. They also make a cheaper Domaine des Tours Vin de Pays Vaucluse. In terms of red wines, Rayas also makes Pignan from the vineyard just next to the Rayas vineyard as well as two other Cotes du Rhone called Château de Fonsalette and Pialade. Rayas and Pignan are 100% Grenache while the others are typical Southern Rhone Grenache blends. FYI, there are other producers who make 100% Grenache Châteauneuf du Pape sourced from the Pignan vineyard like Pierre-Henri Morel.
65% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 15% Cinsault; Organic. Whole cluster and native yeasts. Based on previous descriptions, 90% of it is aged in concrete vats and 10% in used 600 liter oak for 18 months. Minimal sulfur used. The color shows some evolution on the edges and looks unfiltered. The nose is really meaty and bloody with smoky herbs and wood. Dark fruit. The palate is mostly dark fruit too with a touch of red fruit and acidity at the end. Some spice. Rich. Velvety. Medium plus bodied. A little hot at 14.5% alcohol in a minty sort of way. Right on the edge of being too ripe. Sort of Amarone-like. 92
Although I’ve never had Rayas, and Rayas has changed in styles over the decades depending on who was in charge, Rayas is special for being all late-picked Grenache over sand soil, which differs from most of Chateauneuf du Pape which is stony (with stones called galets) and produces Grenache blends. Plus, the terroir is cooler than most of the appellation. Hence you get the sexy aromatics and feel of the late-picked Grenache while being able to maintain elegance, freshness and complexity. With Chateau des Tours, you get old-vine late-picked Grenache too, but there’s Syrah and Cinsault. I sensed the presence of Syrah on the nose especially, giving it more savory and darker notes while there’s definitely a sexy, concentrated-fruity side from the Grenache too. I imagine the Rayas would be a step up in balance, elegance while having just as much or more concentration. This Chateau des Tours has a smoothness, roundness factor but with some weight. The 2017 vintage might also be the reason for the darker profile as I was expecting more red fruit, which I tasted a while back in their 2012 Domaine des Tours Vin Pays de Vaucluse, a cuvee that’s step down from their Cotes du Rhone made from declassified juice of all their holdings. I’ve also tasted other producers who make wine from Pignan, which is next to the Rayas vineyard with similar sandy soils. It also had more red fruit notes. These are all ways to try to get an idea of what Rayas tastes like when you can’t afford the $1500 price tag, but many experts say Rayas is totally unique and on another level.