Factors That Influence Wine Prices

By Author: Stephen John
Total Articles: 65
Comment this article

If there's one longstanding reputation of wines, it's that they are expensive. Champagnes are often served in classy events where the party's idea of a meal consists of very tasty food speared by toothpicks. While nobody seems to complain about wine prices, we often find ourselves in a restaurant and never looking through the pricier wines in the menu. Would they be worth the cost, we wonder? It may be. It may be not. There are a lot of factors that drive wine prices up.

Production Cost
The short version of wine production is this: picking grapes from a vineyard, adding yeast, crushing them, bottling the juices, and aged in oak barrels. The equipment necessary to do all of this are by no means cheap, but this doesn't impact the price of a bottle that much considering that manufacturers get their ROI in no time.

Logistics
Depending on where the vineyards are, the wine may travel exchange hands multiple times. Transporting Australian shiraz to the U.S. or Europe, for instance, will acquire various shipping and customs cost. Each leg of the transport will mark up the price slightly, until it reaches its ...
... intended destination, where distributors will sell these wines to different wine shops, which will state the final price consumers.

Quality
The quality of wine is another factor, but the fact that each person has a different taste makes this tricky. Most good wines are aged well, but older ones aren't necessarily the better bottles. Cheaper wines, those that run for under twenty bucks, aren't necessarily bad. They are probably just not aged that long, but still taste great. There are also cheaper wines that have been aged for too long and the store wants to get rid of it before it goes bad.

Brand and Existing Reputation
Most people go for well-known brands because they know that these names are trusted. In Australian wines for instance, Yellow Tail comes to a lot of people's minds. Penfolds wine is another. Most times, wine producers who have been at it for several decades are the ones that produce top quality wines. The fact that they have been operational for so long means they're doing it right, and wine-buyers acknowledge that.

Celebrity Endorsements
Advertising that includes a celebrity works like magic. An unknown product attached to a well-known endorser will always pique the masses' interest. It doesn't guarantee a good quality wine, however. Still, it will entice a lot of people to buy the product. The law of supply and demand then gets put into action. At the same time, some manufacturers may simply just put a hefty price on their wines just to appear of good quality.

A lot of people tend to forget one thing: wine is wine. Cheap wines aren't that bad. While they can get a lot better, they can still be enjoyed when paired with the right food. Don't let the price of a bottle dictate whether you'll like it or not. Your taste buds will take care of that. Wines can add life to any party. Try bring a bottle of Penfolds Australia for a livelier party, with which you can learn more from this article.