Yes, Virginia, there are post-holiday wines that you can afford and still pay your bills. And there's no question we live in inflationary times when it comes to wine.
Numerous factors conspire to push up wine prices.
Mother Nature's weather patterns, the high cost of oak barrels and other winery paraphernalia, and the wine industry's distributor network all play roles. But the leading inflationary contributor is the law of supply and demand. In recent years, a stubborn root louse known as phylloxera has choked the life out of thousands of acres of grapevines in California, necessitating the uprooting of the affected vines. Replacement vines with more resistant rootstocks have been planted, but grapevines typically take three years to produce wine-quality grapes and up to seven years for their grapes to achieve full flavor potential. The spread of phylloxera coincided with increasing consumer interest in good-quality wines, and this combination of factors resulted in shortages of many popular California bottlings.