The Wine Lottery

My friend Daniela says that every time she buys a bottle of wine it feels like a wine lottery. Next time you are in the wine shop, scan the back labels for references to low yields’ or ‘matured in small, oak barriques’ or ‘produced in limited quantity, as these terms are somewhat of a synonym for quality. For the lover of fine wine, the mention of all things small garners a lot of attention. For example, a wine is probably not a bad drop if it is grown in a tiny pocket of an itsy bitsy appellation where a little man owns a smidgeon of an area planted to ancient vines requiring microscopic attention to detail in order to produce a teensy weensy crop, which yields only a few hundred or thousand bottles a year.

To the wine aficionado, size matters and while it is incorrect to claim that only the best wines of the world are made in miniscule amounts, understandably, a smaller plot of land allows the vigneron to gain an intimate knowledge of the vineyard where 90% of the work is done. There are no guarantees that you will like it but at least you can be assured that great care has gone into making the wine and don’t be embarrassed to admit that the bottle had you at tiny.

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