Good Question: Why Are Some Wines So Expensive?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Christmas has come and gone, but at Haskell's in Minnetonka, New Year's Eve is one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
"Santa Margarita pinot grigio, which is like a $20 bottle," one wine shopper said, sharing their purchases. "And a cabernet that's $40. That's a splurge for me."
At Haskell's, you can splurge even more for a bottle of wine. A lot more.
"This Magnum is worth $5,000 a bottle. This is from our reserve cellar," wine director Mitch Spencer said. "In a lot of instances, wine creates the moment and the moment creates the wine."
In the Haskell's wine room reside bottles that are like the Ferraris of the wine world. Spencer said their price is driven by the old economic concept of supply and demand.
"When you have properties that make 1,500 cases of wine, 2,000 cases of wine, are there 2,000 people that want to buy that? No, there are 200,000 people that want to buy that," Spencer said.
Production, quality, demand, and supply all help to set the price for wine. So does location and even the barrels the wine is aged in. It all factors into the difference between a $7 bottle of wine and a $7,000 bottle of wine.
And the old saying "aging like a fine wine" has a lot to do with the sun.
"Sun helps the wine age. It helps the soil dry out. It helps the vines stress themselves and that makes the quality much, much higher," Spencer said.
That can mean a higher price point. A bottle of French red Bordeaux, Chateau Lafite Rothschild, has a 100-point rating and is selling for $2,000.
Limited supply is one thing, but taste is just as big. That's how the "Ferraris" get in the Haskell's wine room.
"There are bottles of wine that sell for that amount that don't separate good from bad. And then there are bottles of wine where you try it and you are like whoa, that's different. I haven't had anything like that," Spencer said.
Supply and demand is also what drives the price for Irish whiskey, scotch, and other spirits. Some bottles of Macallan scotch sell for $2,000 or more.