Hans Christian Andersen's tale of "The Emperor's New Clothes" has a profound relevance to wine, in that the value of a particular bottle of that wonderful liquid is so often influenced by the marketing hype and status that surrounds it.
Like the Emperor Napoleon, we all like a good wine, a great wine, but what makes a wine iconic and outrageously expensive.
Who puts the dollar value on a bottle of wine?
Is it you the consumer, or is it the marketer or the wine critic?
We suspect it's the marketer and the wine critic who exert the greatest influence on price.
So, if you the wine drinker want value for money, would you be prepared to pay AUD$2,200 approx. for a 2013 Grands Échezeaux, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC)? Or AUD$25 for a bottle of 2016 Wild Fire Pinot Noir.
Both are excellent wines, and the DRC is iconic.
While Wild Fire doesn't have the global reputation of the DRC, it offers wonderful value for money, being $2,175 less expensive! But similar to the DRC, there's not a lot of the Wild Fire available.
Wild Fire is not about "The Emperor's New Clothes". It’s about providing high-quality wines at realistic prices.