Every once in a while we’ll hear about the latest horror story with respect to "discount" wines available at grocery stores. You might have seen these, they can sometimes be as low as $25 a kit. That sounds good, who wouldn’t want wine at under $1 per bottle?
"A merlot is a merlot" is one phrase I’ve heard. I mean, if you can get Merlot at $1 a bottle or $4 a bottle, isn’t the choice obvious? Well lets apply this logic to any other industry. How about cars? If there is a $10 000 car and a $40 000 car, is the choice obvious? If your limit is $10 000, then sure. But to say they are the same thing is glossly incorrect.
Much like the cars, some wines are cheap for a reason. Whether its using poorly constucted parts (or grape juices such as second presses) or another cost cutting measure, the result certainly affects your end product – just like a car, you can only have as good a wine as the parts you make it from.
One example was a "pure juice" kit one customer was complaining about. The price sounded good – I think he paid something to the tune of $50. But then when he went to make it, he took the specific gravity and found it only had 8% potential alcohol! How is this possible? Well there are only really two ways this can happen. Either the juice was watered down, or the grapes were of extremely low quality – and no other manufacteror would buy them!
So if a wine is a wine, then clearly my Lumina is the same as a Cadillac, right?