Why Stop at $20?
by Seema Tikare
The amount of $20 is such a nice, round number. And so easy to track in terms of spending. I will not spend more than $20 on a t-shirt. I will not spend more than $20 on a hat. So, when it is ok to spend more than $20 on something you haven’t had before? Well…when it is wine.
Wine is an ephemeral pleasure. Even for those of us who have dedicated our careers to wine, we understand - you drink it and then it is gone. But while you are drinking it - that is the moment. Almost everyone who loves wine has a story about that glass that changed the way they think about it. They have that moment of supreme epiphany seared into their brain, that moment of thinking: this is worthy of reverence. My epiphany happened many years ago when I had finally finished graduate school and actually had an income. I thought, I should celebrate with my beloved by buying a great bottle of wine. Fortunately, I stumbled onto a great choice - a 1998 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It was $36.99 at the time which was a fortune to me! But it made it me realize that the cheap wines I had been drinking until then were just that, delicious but nonetheless, cheap wines. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Australian Shiraz or a Portuguese Blend. Big, red, alcoholic and slightly sweet wines have a lot going for them, but they are not fine wines.
Consider - growing grapes and making wine is an expensive endeavor. You have to trellis and nurture grapes carefully, usually on prime real estate. Then you have to harvest the grapes, sometimes by hand. Sort them, keep them in a temperature controlled environment, soak them, de-stem and crush them, ferment the juice often with specialized cultivated yeasts, macerate the reds for concentration, age them sometimes in expensive oak barrels, or keep them on the yeast or “lees” and stir regularly, rack them off the lees, filter and fine the wines to stabilize them, and then bottle, label, market and ship them. It is stunning that any wines at all can me made for below $20.
Over the years, I have come to realize that sometimes, it is nice to splurge on something of higher quality - the more comfortable mattress, the better shoes that fit just right, that shampoo that makes your hair feel luxurious. And inevitably, it is the same with wine. There are many excellent makers of wine who target the $15 - $20 range and the wines can be very, very good. But often, the more you spend, more concentration of flavors, the better the balance between acid and astringency, the greater the complexity of aromas and flavors. Our big transition came a few years ago, when we joined a local wine club and for $35 a month. We got 2 wines with tasting notes and recipes to pair with the wines and it a great way to learn about different regions and varietals. However, after a few months, we realized that while the wines were interesting, they were not always what we wanted. So as we began to explore on our own, we also thought, why not spend that same $35 on only ONE bottle of wine and really do it right? It has changed the way we enjoy our experiences now when we regularly open that special bottle simply to enjoy it.
So, back to that $20 glass ceiling. Why it is such a mental barrier? Think of it this way: if you go to a restaurant, you are likely to spend $12 on a glass of wine, more if you count the tax and tip. And if you have 2 glasses, that is already well over $25. And chances are, the wine is not the best wine around. Whereas, if you were to spend $25 on a bottle of wine at a shop, you are getting a high quality, well made, delicious wine that you will be enjoy for maybe two days if you store it properly (vacu-vin and refrigerate or even spray a bit of NOX into the bottle). Drink something that is “sparks joy” (as Marie Kondo would say!).
Want to try some of the fancy stuff? Check out Seema’s upcoming class Iconic Wines.
