The Perils of Price Dissonance
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The matter of Bordeaux’s unprecedentedly high prices for its 2005 vintage crus classés, or classed growths, is churning on wine chat boards worldwide. Every time the Bordelais ratchet up their prices — which occurs with clockwork regularity whenever they have a great vintage — the reaction is one of consumer outrage.Yet the wines sell anyway.
You see, Bordeaux buyers — uniquely, I believe — suffer from what psych-savvy sorts call cognitive dissonance, which is roughly defined as the discrepancy between what you already know or believe and new information that contradicts or screws-up your prior belief.
Bordeaux lovers are wrestling with two conflicting, psyche-disturbing forces. One is their vision of themselves as the very deepest channel of the wine mainstream. Whatever they do, by definition, is the essence of conventional common sense.
Yet Bordeaux lovers know that the latest asking prices for the 2005s are loony. Hence the cognitive dissonance.To pay such prices is nuts.Yet they’re paying.
The root of the dissonance lies in the incontrovertible fact that classed-growth Bordeaux is the set-point of wine “value.” Whatever, say, a First Growth such as Château Lafite-Rothschild gets (Zachys is offering futures of 2005 Ch. Lafite-Rothschild for $625 a bottle) is the new benchmark for high-end wine value worldwide. It’s the “right price” for the finest wines.
The ripple effect of this is greater than you might imagine. For starters, the pricing of previous Bordeaux vintages is reshuffled.
For example, with 2005 Château Lafite-Rothschild commanding $625 a bottle, what of the price of the 1995 Lafite? It received 97 points from Wine Spectator and 95 points from Robert M. Parker’s Wine Advocate. Yet the ’95 Lafite currently sells for “just” $335 a bottle at Sherry-Lehmann and you get 10 years of much-needed cellaring, to say nothing of actually having the wine in hand.
Obviously, such disparity can’t continue — price dissonance, if you will. The price escalator will go up for previous you-gotta-have-it Bordeaux vintages, always recalibrated against the new price standard for “value” set by the 2005s.
What’s more, the set-point effect of Bordeaux’s newest pricing doesn’t stop at the French (wine) border, either. Quite the opposite. No winegrowers anywhere keep a closer eye on Bordeaux pricing than Napa Valley’s high-end cabernet producers. Their angle is the classic “We’re just as good at half the price.”
Napa Valley “cult cabernets” such as Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle, Dalle Valle “Maya,” and Bryant Family Vineyards, among others, all command prices approaching those of Bordeaux First Growths — at least after they’re flipped at auction.This shows how tentative and fluid California’s status is at the high-end compared to long-established Bordeaux.
Napa’s cult cabernet wineries don’t make as much “ex-cellar” — direct sales from the winery — as do their Bordeaux confrères. They don’t (yet) have the chutzpah to charge their customers what they know their buyers will fetch when they immediately put their purchases up at auction — which they invariably do.
Of course, the wineries will start charging the true market rate from the get-go once the demand and prestige become what they perceive as their seigniorial right. But cult cabernet status is currently too new and too volatile (the wine critic gods giveth and they can taketh away) for the kind of aristocratic presumption Bordeaux’s top estates enjoy.
All of this makes today’s high-end wine game quite entertaining for those of us on the sidelines. While the high rollers hold their heads (and their wallets), agonizing over their excruciating choice between snapping up old-vintage deals and acquiring bragging rights at having secured the everyone’s-talking-about-it 2005s, the rest of us skip happily to real wine values that float free of all this nonsense.
HERE’S THE (VALUE) DEAL
AVILA “SANTA BARBARA COUNTY” CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2004 California is not noted for delivering much value once beyond the jug. But an ever-increasing supply of grapes means that, finally, we’re beginning to see a greater value-consciousness on the part of enterprising wineries. (The dreaded word “glut” is being whispered this year.) One such brand is Avila, which is a lowerpriced offering from Laetitia Winery & Vineyard, which specializes in pinot noir. Reaching out to vineyards in Santa Barbara County and elsewhere in California’s Central Coast, the Avila brand delivers some pretty tasty goods, including an excellent syrah, as well as an extremely pleasing cabernet sauvignon. This 2004 Avila Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced entirely from a single vineyard (Barnwood Vineyard) and is an exceptional cabernet for the money. Redolent of wild cherry, black cherry, cranberry, licorice, and a touch of menthol, this is a brightly flavored, succulent cabernet for everyday drinking, ideal for a burger or a really good chili. Will it put a dent in Bordeaux’s high prices? Nah. But it won’t put one in your pocketbook either — and it will assuredly set your palate dancing. The best deal is $9.99 at PJ Wine; $12.99 elsewhere.