Considering how some Fraysters were quick to call Steinberg a snob for writing about $15 wine, the comments about $150 a bottle should be interesting . . .

i suspect the envious, class warriors will be 10X as jealous.

peasants!

i certainly don't buy $150 bottles of wine and rarely spent $15, but i don't begrudge anyone who does. i like this guys writing style too. the best on slate in my opinion.

I recently laid out some big bucks for some second and third growth 2005 Bordeaux and grand cru Burgundy. But it's the year I got married and we wanted some special bottles to open at an anniversary many years from now.

I put the price of wine in perspective thusly. My brother spent well over $100 to attend an NHL game earlier this year that he could have watched on TV. I might not make the same decision, but I don't appreciate hockey as he does. It's his money and his decision to spend it the way he wants.

Some people are happy with two-buck chuck. That's their taste and I certainly don't judge them, so why do they judge me when I would prefer something for $30 or more?

'Some people are happy with two-buck chuck. That's their taste and I certainly don't judge them, so why do they judge me when I would prefer something for $30 or more?'

some people hate diversity. funny enough, it's usually the ones who try to ram it down everyones throats. at least that has been my observation.

i like rich people and certainly don't begrudge them like some that i know.

my ex wife was like that. one of her little friends would get something and instead of being happy for her, she used to fume that she couldn't have what that person had.

miserable bitch.

i mean if one begrudges persons for being rich, i don't think they would be a very good at being rich.

It's not the idea of $150/bottle wine. It's the idea that the author says that $150/bottle wine is price range for, as he says, "proles like me." For the vast majority of American wine drinkers, $150/bottle is a dream.

Do I care if people spend $150/bottle on wine? No. But I reject the idea that $150/bottle wine is relevent or attainable by most Americans. Heck, that's half a tank of gas. :)

We should have Congress look into this wine price-fixing scheme!

Dusty Bear:

Considering how some Fraysters were quick to call Steinberg a snob for writing about $15 wine, the comments about $150 a bottle should be interesting . . .

I don't believe anyone called Steinberg a snob for writing about $15 wine.  He was called a snob for, well, acting like a snob about $15 wine.  His description of said wine as "cheap," which it is not, not when compared to other alcoholic beverages, his wondering aloud whether he would find any wine in that price range that would be worth drinking, and his conspicuous snubbing of any US-made wine in that category are why people felt he was snobbish. 

<i>It's not the idea of $150/bottle wine. It's the idea that the author says that $150/bottle wine is price range for, as he says, "proles like me." For the vast majority of American wine drinkers, $150/bottle is a dream.</i>

I don't think Steinberger sees himself among the vast majority of American wine drinkers. He's a professional wine writer who, more by avocation it seems, happily spends thousands (tens of thousands?) of dollars yearly on wine. In that world, people like David Li are the aristocrats.

All of my books are in storage so I can't track down the actual number, But I recall Kevin Zraly remarking in one of his books that 70% of the wine dollars spent in the U.S. go to wines priced at $3 and under. And this was a few years ago, before two-buck chuck started going for three bucks. Only about five or six percent of those dollars buy wines costing $12 or more. I imagine the number of people who would even entertain the fantasy of a $150 wine splurge is pretty small.

I've never found Steinberger's wine writing snobby. He's passionate about a subject that is often very much a matter of luxury consumption - I imagine the occasional appearance of snobbery is a sort of occupational hazard.

The most I ever spent for a single bottle of wine was $70. I spent about $130 for two bottles of wine on another occasion -- and in both instances the wine was excellent.

My trouble is, without regard to the snobishness of wine snobs everywhere, I don't think I can distinguish between a wine that is really good -- a $12 bottle of Syrah that ranks 87 with Wine Spectator -- and great, one of the author's expensive Bordeaux. I'm not saying that the difference doesn't exist, merely that my palate is insufficiently sensitive to appreciate the difference.

Given that, it is cost inefficient for me to spend much more than about $40 for a bottle of wine. You can buy good wine for that amount, and spending more won't get me more value that I'll be able to experience.

Or, as I saw in a cartoon in some magazine a few years ago, a drawing of a sommalier saying to a young couple, "I recommend the Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It has an hearty bouquet, an elegant finish, and it won't fuck up the flavor of your cheeseburger."