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Newsletter Offers a Shortcut to Figuring Out Wines' Quality-Price Ratio
• by Jordan Mackay
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What makes something a value? We see this term applied to wine all the time. Store displays will be marked with signs that read “Great Value!” or “Fantastic Bargain Wine!” Usually these wines are priced below $10 and are displayed in multitudes of stacked cases. I’ve never seen a single bottle of wine locked in a glass case with a $100 price tag and a “great value” sign, but there’s no reason why this couldn’t be done. It all comes down to something called QPR.
QPR obsesses wine geeks. The letters stand for quality-price ratio, which is just another way of talking about the value of wine. But QPR is a sensitive subject. Everyone feels shafted after buying wine with a bad QPR: It’s just not as painful if the bottle cost $10 versus $100. Similarly, the wine-obsessed love to comb shop aisles and magazine ratings in search of good QPR. Then they love to brag, “I found blah-de-blah rouge 2001 for $17. Bought a whole case.” When faced with that you can either feel jealous or simply shoot back something like, “Well, I found blah-de-blah 1996 – a much better vintage – for $14 and bought every bottle left in the store.”
Of course, to have a good sense of a wine’s QPR, you need a lot of information. You have to know the particular wine in question: Is it good? You have to know something about its category – Rhône wines, Chiantis, etc. – to be able to determine if this one stands out from the pack. And you have to know something of wines in its price category: Is this an exceptional wine for $12 or are there better ones out there?
That’s a lot of information to have at your fingertips. Wine
ratings – if you believe in them – such as those found in Wine Spectator or Robert Parker’s newsletter can help alleviate the disadvantages of not knowing, but the problem is that these ratings don’t factor in price. So, if you see a 93-point wine for $15 in the ratings, you think great QPR and if you see an 89-point wine for $75, you assume lousy QPR. Your assumptions may or may not be true, as ratings are often very fickle. Many a time I’ve been excited to try a 90-point $10 wine and been utterly disappointed.
To ameliorate the situation, a newsletter and Web site have come about (www.qprwines.com). Its formula for determining the elusive ratio is “by taking the average retail price of a wine with a given score and dividing it by the average retail price for all wines with that score. If the average QPR equals 100 percent, then anything below that represents a better value. Anything above, not so good.”
Averages and consensus can give us a better picture of the wine’s critical reception and comparing it to other wines with the same score hones in a bit on the relative value of the wine. Still, though, you never know until you try the sucker. Here are a few that I’ve tried and found to be good QPR.
Trapiche Malbec, Argentina 2003
Usually retails for about $8. Dark and brooding, this wine provides jammy dark fruit stiffened up with sharp coffee and bitter chocolate notes. Good structure but not overly tannic. Red meat straight off the grill begs for this kind of juice.
Rex Goliath “47-Pound Rooster” Central Coast Pinot Noir, California 2001
This wine often goes for $9 and offers all of the basic elements one can ask for in a Pinot Noir (that often aren’t present in $30 wines). It’s juicy and full of cherry fruit, with enlivening acidity and a nice fluid elegance as well. Not a ton of complexity, but, hey, look at the price!
Huber “Hugo” Grüner Veltliner, Austria 2003
Marcus Huber is the 25-year-old winemaker at this venerable estate, and the guy has crafted a superb white wine for $10. Stylish, dry, bursting with juicy acidity, this is the wine for shellfish or, better yet, salads with vinaigrette. Sharp citrus fruit and a lean, but not unpleasant, vegetal streak make this one of the world’s best food wines.
Laurel Glen “Counterpoint” Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, 2001
Here’s an example of a slightly more expensive wine that’s well worth the price. The younger sibling of the massive and acclaimed Laurel Glen estate wines, Counterpoint has forever been one of the great QPRs in California. It’s loaded with classic Cabernet flavors of cassis, blackberry, mint and spice, and its tannins are supple. This wine manages to be structured and juicy at the same time – serious, yet approachable. And it’s only $25.
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