Max gave us the benefit of his experience in trying different wines that were available in the shop. He said it was surprising that quite inexpensive wines could taste as good as expensive ones. He suggested trying interesting wines that were not necessarily well known or popular, for example wines from Sicily have yet to be ‘discovered’ and when they are discovered the price will go up. It is a fact that wines can be affected by ‘fashion’, for instance German Riesling is apparently not as fashionable as it was at one time and also this applies to sherry.
For expensive wines, supply and demand plays a very big part in the price. Wines can be expensive if a popular Vineyard limits the availability (for one reason or another) but concentrates instead on ensuring the highest quality of the wine that is produced.
Max told us that for a £5.00 bottle, the value of the wine is approximately 92p, whereas a £15.00 bottle, the value would be £6.00!
We ended the meeting with a question and answer session and Val, our Chairman, then thanked Max for an extremely interesting and eye-opening talk.
Our next meeting will be our AGM on 3rd November.
