As I hope you've noticed, I spend a lot of time writing about inexpensive wines, which these days means $20 or less a bottle. Unlike buyers of $12 wine magazines, a lot of newspaper readers are casual wine fans, unlikely to spend $40 for something to drink with dinner. I hope that gives me the credibility to write once in a while -- like today -- about expensive wines.
Readers often ask why some wines are so costly, and whether a $200 wine can be 20 times as good as a $10 wine. The answer to the second question is easy: no. And I agree that even some $40 wines are overpriced in terms of quality. But there are legitimate reasons for a wine to cost $40, even $60 or more.
First, there's the price of grapes. A ton of pinot noir grapes from Sonoma County, well-known for great pinot noirs, cost $2,507 in 2006; a ton of pinot noir grapes from Washington State, where that grape is just catching on, was $921. Simple supply and demand.
Second, consider the lengths to which vineyard managers and winemakers go in making wines from their top grapes.
Sea Smoke Cellars in California's Santa Rita Hills, for example, makes a fabulous $70 pinot noir it calls ''Ten'' for the 10 clones of pinot noir from which it comes. Each vine is tended at least seven times during the growing period, with workers cutting off or repositioning shoots, even pulling off individual leaves to get the optimum amount of sun on each grape. Some grapes are jettisoned, cutting yield to direct more of the vine's efforts to the ones that remain. And the wine itself is aged in French oak barrels with staves from 12 coopers in a bid for greater complexity.
The $90 J. Schram Sparkling Wine from California's North Coast represents only 3 percent of the winery's production, but its grapes are chosen from 80 vineyard blocks in the Anderson Valley, Carneros, Sonoma and Marin areas. Some are fermented in oak barrels for complexity, others in stainless steel to preserve the acids that give the wine its crispness. Some of the wine is given a secondary fermentation to create a buttery, creamy texture. Then it is aged for five years, with bottles periodically turned by hand.
The story is similar at Beringer, where the $116 2004 Napa Valley Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is the product of the best grapes from eight vineyards, and at Clos Pegase, where the $40 Mitsuko's Vineyard Chardonnay comes from a patch of vines owner Jan Shrem values so highly he named it for his wife.
A wine, of course, is only worth as much as the drinker is willing to pay. And if you can pay the freight, these won't disappoint.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
• 2000 J. Schram Sparkling Wine, Napa, Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin: creamy and lush, like the orange Creamsicle you ate as a kid, but also crisp and tangy; $90.
• 2005 Sea Smoke Cellars ''Ten'' Pinot Noir, Santa Riuta Hills: aromas and flavors of oak, mocha and mulberries; creamy, voluptuous; long, bitter chocolate finish; $70.
• 2004 Beringer Vineyards Napa Valley Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon: smooth but powerful, with aromas and flavors of oak, black cherries, Asian spices and bittersweet chocolate; very smooth; long finish; $116.
• 2005 Hommage Chardonnay, Mitsuko's Vineyard, Carneros, Napa Valley: big, lush and buttery; packed with tropical fruit; long, extra-fruity finish; $40.
