Wine Inflation

Some days I remind myself of my grandfather. Late in his life, he spent a fair amount of time checking prices and complaining about how expensive everything had become since the days of the good five-cent cigar. Reminding him that salaries had pretty much risen to keep pace with price inflation did not comfort him much; and nowadays I'm discovering similar attitudes in myself when I step into the wine store.

Let me tell you young whippersnappers: When I started writing about wine back in 1980, you could get a good bottle of French or Italian wine for $4 or so; a decent California wine probably went for a dollar or so less. Cheap wines from Spain, Australia, New Zealand or South America weren't a real option because, frankly, we barely knew that those countries made wine, and we certainly weren't likely to find them at most retail shops in the U.S.

The conventional wisdom among retailers at the time held that only wine-loving rich people would pay more than $6 for a bottle of wine, and then only for the rarest delectables from Burgundy or Bordeaux. Confronted with a fine Barolo that I really wanted to try, I talked a buddy into sharing the cost of a bottle so we could justify the experience. It was $7.50.

With memories like that (and never mind that my annual wage as a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper in 1980 would barely reach poverty level today), it's hard not to feel "sticker shock" when I see the threshold price for "interesting" wines approaching $10 in 2006. Harrumph!

How much have wine prices really increased, if inflation is taken into account? Certainly if we consider the "cultish" wines at nosebleed price levels, the sought-after collectibles that the Usual Suspects rate with 90-plus scores, pricing has gone crazy. Few wine lovers with any sense are buying 2005 Bordeaux futures (although that caveat still leaves a sizable number of people baying at the moon with their wallets held open).

But in the more-or-less affordable $10 to $20 range where most of us look for our everyday wines, is inflation really out of control? Well ... maybe not. I Googled up a simple, quick Inflation Calculator, plugged in a couple of 1980 price points, and got back these results:

• What cost $4 in 1980 would cost $10.16 in 2005.
• What cost $6 in 1980 would cost $15.24 in 2005.
• What cost $7.50 in 1980 would cost $19.05 in 2005.