Spectacular 1985 Washington Cab!

I went to Roland Winery, in Longview WA, for my first time last night; it was owner Mark's granddaughter's 21st birthday; they have a pizza oven (and the pizza and salad were GREAT). It's a cute space; cozy; everyone knows each other; I liked the Roland Barbera. In summer the fun spills out onto their outside crush pad area. My kind host Steve is a favorite customer there, and gave me a great tour of the wines/space.

But this post is about a wonderful old wine that one friend of the winery, Jim, brought: 1985 Columbia Cabernet Sauvignon, made by David Lake.

1. Columbia was the 1983 successor to Associated Vintners, a Univ of Wa-professor-based organization that was one of the very first winemaker groups in this state. I have a bottle from about 1975, of an Ass'd Vintners wine. (Alas, I received the bottle already empty, but I kept the bottle for its historical importance. Hey! WA needs a wine museum. This bottle belongs in it.)
2. This 1985 Cab was still young and vibrant! The color indicated it, and then the nose, and finally the palate. The wine was no doubt made in a cooler year than optimal, as the dominant fruits were cranberry and red berries (whereas it should be black currants), but the flavor was fresh and clean, and the wine was well made. It even had a nice sagebrush note. Very impressive aging.
3.Best of all, I noticed the bottle carried a $2.89 price sticker, so I asked Jim if that was really the price. "Oh, yes," he said. "These bottles were sent back by a distributor, and got dumped onto a retailer, who priced them to go quickly." Wow is all I can say. Living history! A special moment.

This was Otis Vineyard, Yakima, and David Lake was a big deal-a reknowned winemaker. He was the first to plant Syrah in Washington state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lake_(winemaker)

Wine snobbery versus lower-cost wines

This excellent opinion piece from the New York Times makes the argument that while wine snobbery is at an all-time high, the quality of cheap wines is closer to the quality of very fine wines than it has ever been. This is due to vast increases in winemakers' skills and toolsets.

The average price of a bottle of wine drunk in the US now is $10. I have long believed that it isn't necessary to pay $30, $50, or $100 to get a fantastic bottle of wine. Studies show that even if you work really hard to waste money, it's difficult for a winery to have fixed and variable costs greater than about $25 per bottle, so when you see prices of $125 for an Oregon Pinot, you are paying at least $100 profit PER BOTTLE to the winery's lucky owner. Meanwhile, there are countless (truly a vast number) of $20-and-under wines that are just as good. Wow.