Goldwater - $20 wines going for $10,000

What are you willing to pay for a bottle of wine?

I ran across this article today about the Goldwater winery in New Zealand. Judged “one of the best” according to the London International Wine & Spirit Fair. Ok, that’s cool, but what really caught my eye in the article was someone here in the state of Texas reportedly paid $10,000 for one of their wines – the 2003 New Dog Sauvignon Blanc.

Wow! That’s a lot of simoleons for a bottle of NZ Sauvignon Blanc. Maybe this is some really exotic wine?? Actually, it was just an exotic bottle – one of apparently only two 6 litre bottles. And as the article goes on to explain, the big price tag was really all about the charity event where the bottle was sold. And yet, despite that, the auction event and it’s big price tag has apparently caused sales of this wine to “go through the roof”. It’s truly amazing how well the “If it’s expensive, it must be good” mentality works.

Curious, I pulled up some of my pictures from my trip to NZ earlier this year. Sure enough, the Goldwater I visited is the same Goldwater on Waiheke Island they’re talking about in the article. I’d even taken a picture of the menu at the tasting room. (Above, click it to see larger version in context.) Sure enough, the price tag for this year’s New Dog Sauvignon Blanc is only about $20 (The $28 on the menu is New Zealand dollars.) Of course, that was before this auction event. I wonder what that menu lists it for today?

“Goldwater” is an ironic name for this winery. Don’t you think? I tasted this wine. It’s good. Surely no better than the Kim Crawford I posted about earlier though. I hope no one pays any more than $20 for this.