By now, most of you know that I am not an advocate of chasing wine prices.  I have preached in earlier articles waiting for the wines to “come in,” especially in the current economic climate.  I feel that, eventually, most wines will settle into a price range that is reasonable in my mind.  While there are many (ok…..lots of) wines that I would love to have in my cellar now, I can be patient and wait to be certain that I am not overpaying the marketplace.  That mantra challenged me recently and re-taught a valued lesson.

The Southern Rhone wine, Vieux Telegraphe, is just a marvelous wine.  This baby usually displays deep blackberry fruit along with fig and an almost briary, earthy and garrigue character.  It’s a wine made for lamb and beef.   The 2005 and just released ’07 are probably the best of the last 10 years, the former having produced nearly 16,000 cases and the latter, 17,000.  That’s a lot of wine!  An added benefit is that these wines have a very long life ahead, perhaps as long as another 20 years.

The ‘07’s have been receiving a lot of positive press from a few of the internationally renown wine critics and with good reason.  After receiving, what seemed to be nearly endless online accolades about the vintage and Vieux Telegraphe specifically (of which I have a few ‘05’s), I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm any longer……..Maybe Southern Rhone vintage in decades….perhaps in a half century…..I was smitten like a young child in a toy store. So I took the plunge and placed a pre-arrival order for a case, knowing that it would not arrive for another several months . 

At first I felt ecstatic, relieved that I would get my hands on the wine.  But a few days later, I began to feel a pang of remorse.  What was I doing pre-ordering a wine that circulates 17,000 cases of wine when there is soooooo much high quality wine competing for my dollars (and palate) in the system?
The competition for fine wine has not been this vigorous in my lifetime.  This is not Burgundy where miniscule quantities of wine are usually released (often less than 50 cases) resulting in fierce competition for the higher end sector.

Given another few days of thought and reason, I decided to cancel my order, believing that at some point over the next few years, I’ll have the opportunity to purchase the wine at a price no higher than now.  And as I would be unlikely to touch this wine for another few years, waiting would not be a big deal.

While one part of me cringes, knowing that I might not have this powerhouse wine in my possession for sometime to come, the other side knows that I did the right thing.  Looking back at the ’05, you can now purchase the wine for about its release price.  Likely, the same or even better, will play out with the ‘07’s.

But the real lesson for me here is the role of power of persuasion through advertising, even for seasoned enthusiasts.  When one publication after another extols the once in a lifetime virtue of “have to have” wines, it becomes increasingly challenging to resist.  Eventually, the risk is that you “cave in” as I did.  The risks of power of persuasion to influence decisions is the chief reason why wine critics taste blindly.  Imagine the challenge of scoring a Chateau Lafite Rothschild second to a $30 everyday bottle of Bordeaux if the comparison were non-blind?  No….advertising supposed to be persuasive if they do their job well and I was reminded of that this time.  Fortunately, I came to my own rescue just in time…..

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Tags: Southern Rhone, Vieux Telegraphe