I was completely expecting the kind of feedback I got on my recent Napa article and I can see both sides of the argument – thank you everyone who read the article and/or posted comments!

First, I’d like to address those who brought up free markets – which I’m normally a huge fan of as it helps breed competition and competition always breeds excellence for both the companies involved and for the consumers.

I feel I was rather up front in the article that the ultimate blame for the pricing games fall squarely upon the shoulders of the consumers. If it wasn’t for customers willingness to pay x-amount of dollars for the wines, then wineries couldn’t charge what they do. In fact, we have definitely seen many wineries in the Napa Valley area start to slide their prices down a touch and that’s great they’re “listening” to market trends.

Secondly, part of the problem that’s not unique to Napa is that you have rich folks, who know nothing about wine making, will buy a chunk of land and/or a building, hire a wine maker and churn out a cab that costs $150 – for really nothing more than their own ego of seeing their name on the bottle. It’s been going on for awhile now and unfortunately, all too many customers get caught up into it. One of the best ways to go into any wine region is to talk to the locals or better, have friends that live there etc. They can point you in the direction of the wineries that are still making their wines with passion, heart and soul – these are the people I personally applaud and wish all the best to and most deserve our support.

Thirdly, I’m the first to admit that when visiting any wine region, much of what you’re paying for is the experience, emotion and “warm fuzzies’ one gets while out visiting wineries. It’s cool – I get it and recommend that experience to anyone who’s into wine or just getting into it. Meeting the winemakers and people behind the vino we enjoy can be a very rewarding experience for you and them.

Finally, affordability is also somewhat subjective – what might be considered “affordable” to one person may not be to another as there are varying degrees of income levels etc. Again, the point of the original article wasn’t to say, “Gee, they’re charging $100 for a cab, isn’t that expensive”? Anyone that has been reading my reviews for any length of time, knows I’m all about QPR (Quality to price ratio) and I have zero problems with any winery charging whatever they want for any wine. The issue I have is when wineries are charing that amount and the wine isn’t delivering the experience the customer paid for (see our WEP section).

The bottom line is this; when any winery from anywhere in the world produces a bottle of wine, regardless of its price, it does sit on the retail shelf next to wines from all over the world (assuming the wine store has a good selection). At that point, it really doesn’t matter if it’s from Napa, WA or Bordeaux as it had better deliver the quality for the price being asked – bottom line, that’s what customers want.

On a very personal level, I’m glad for the Wine 2.0 movement, the blogs, the Vaynerchuk’s of the world and all the wine lovers who help spread the word on wines that deserve our attention and patronage. Together, we are helping bring a positive change in the wine drinking culture of drinkers that are not afraid of embracing their own palate and not afraid they don’t list to ratings.