Small vineyards attract a cult following with pricey vintages

	GALLERY
Several wines from a select few Napa Valley, California, vineyards are referred to as "cult wines" and are highly collectible

By Rusty Dornin
CNN Correspondent

May 19, 2000
Web posted at: 12:54 p.m. EST (1654 GMT)

(CNN) -- It might as well be nectar of the gods -- wine from a handful of small California vineyards in Napa Valley that wine experts are calling cult wines. Rarely seen on store shelves, these wines are commanding prices never seen on this side of the Atlantic.

Wine Spectator, one of the bibles of the wine industry, named nine vineyards that produce the "must have" wines of the new millennium. Andrew Weber of the World Wine Exchange says Screaming Eagle Cabernet is the one of the hottest wines fueling the frenzy.

"When you get on the mailing list you can purchase these for $75 to $100 dollars a bottle. Now we're finding them out on the market for anywhere from a $1000 to $1500 a bottle!"

'Crazy' demand

Ann Colgin of Colgin Cellars produces fewer than 500 cases of wine a year and has 4500 people on a waiting list. Some don't want to wait.

"Somebody wanted to try a case of 1994 Colgin wine and trade it for the new Mercedes SUV when it came out, which was crazy!" Colgin says. "I didn't have a case to trade him."

To some it might be a sign of an economy with too much money and not enough places to spend it. Colgin says she's a bit overwhelmed by the way the wine has taken off.

"People who are very high powered in business who are used to getting what they want when they want it, instant gratification, it's hard for them to understand that I have a huge waiting list and they may be waiting years before they ever see a bottle of Colgin Cellars wine -- which is frustrating for me and for them."

One of the few places you might pick up one the coveted favorites is the Mill Valley Market in Mill Valley California. Wine buyer Doug Canepa says some of the wines they sell increase in value three-fold by the time the person who bought it walks out of the store. Sometimes, Canepa says, people who pay hundreds of dollars a bottle for these wines have no intention of drinking them.

	Wine.101
Wine Labels Learn how to read them. Wine Prices Find out how much you'll pay. Wine Varietals Use our glossary. Alcoholic Drinks Compare the nutritional value of wine against other alcoholic beverages. Message Board Name your favorite wines Champagne A complete guide

"They don't necessarily know what to do with them other than talk about it with their friends," Canepa says. "They become mantel pieces or trophy pieces."

Collector Terry Brookshire has a few cult wine favorites. He refuses to pay outrageous prices but understands why others do.

"There is this human desire to possess things that nobody else has," he explains.

Internet adds to allure

If nearly nobody else has it, then someone will pay a lot of money for it, which is why internet wine auction sites like winebid.com and winecommune.com are full of speculative sellers.

There are even wine chat rooms where folks can compare notes about visits to the cult wineries and such.

Doug Shafer of Shafer Vineyards sells his Hillside Select for $110 a bottle. It goes for twice that on the Internet. Shafer says it's been an amazing phenomenon.

"I'm blown away by the price we're getting for it already and it's exciting to have happen, but the fact that someone can go out and get more for it on their own? I can't control that so I'm not going to worry about it"

Jim Laube, Senior Editor at Wine Spectator, says, "It's a classic case of supply and demand, where you have a very finite supply, you have people willing to pay for the wines. These wines are very small productions, very small lots of land and usually all Napa Valley Cabernets."

Shafer says great wines come from great vineyards. It's the rocks, the soil, the microclimate that help produce superior grapes. His Hillside Select vineyards have certain characteristics that work special magic.

"It's volcanic soil, very shallow, so the vines are stressed. They don't produce a lot of fruit. The berries are very small, which gives you very intense concentrated extract wines."

Those qualities add up to out of this world prices, for what wine experts say might be a little taste of heaven.

High-tech storage centers help wine collectors protect their investment
May 12, 2000
Chugging along: The Napa Valley Wine Train
May 1, 2000
Wine region draws tourists, tasters to South Africa
April 21, 2000
Australian vineyards make inroads in world wine market
March 10, 2000

WinePros
ConnoisseurWeb Wine
Wine Spectator
winebid.com
winecommune.com

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.