2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Chateau Montelena Winery

“Is a hundred-dollar bottle of wine experience better than a less expensive bottle?” That question is a general, when there are so many factors to consider. Begin with a wine’s price points. What a person will pay generate price-point levels: • the regular, every day wine, that costs less than $ 20 per; • the library level wine, moves upward to $ 30-70 per bottle; • those elite wines , start at $100 per bottle but gain in price. • the “cult” wines exist for buyers paying $1,000, $ 3,000, or even $ 350,000 per bottle. Soon after prohibition’s dry days, vintners begin producing commercial wine, again. Then, came along “experts” to rate and grade various wines. These ratings, by numbers or stars, indicated to a buyer how rich the flavors and nuances within that bottle of wine. Hence, the higher the rating, supposedly more complex, causes that bottle to merit higher pricing. In 2012, California, alone, sold $ 22 billion of its wine. In 2018, total U.S wine sales amounted to $ 62.7 billion. The question is: Is there a big a different in wines sold at price points? Are higher referenced ratings more about wine quality or more about advertising, prestige, and sales? Of course, fraud does exist in this industry; wine bottlers relabel a cheaper wine, and then pass it off as expensive stuff. Being an ordinary wine drinker (never schooled in wine etiquette nor a trained sommelier’s palette) I am conducting a wine test. I’ll open some Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wine; I’ll force myself to drink each one. First is a Cab costing over $100. Then, other California Cabs with price-points costing less. Final comparison is when I twist open a box Cab. Maybe wines are like thoroughbred race horses: only a few can run in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Then again, once a race horse, always a race horse. About this 2012 elite Cabernet Sauvignon: Part A: An elite level bottle @+$100. Existential questions are fun. Part B (Read) Part C. (Read) Part D. (Read)