Banfi Vintners

Extract and the quality-price point ratio

Imagine that you are a conscientious grower. You’ve done everything right; you’ve got a small, perfectly ripe crop — then, unexpectedly, the rains come.

Suddenly, the vines drink up an excess of water…all of which is translocated to the grape…and your high extract levels just got “watered down”. Here’s where vintage year comes into play!

Extract is, quantitatively, a small but significant percentage of the wine package. An inexpensive wine with gobs of fruit and flavor (extract) should be purchased by the case. A pricey bottling with little or no intensity of flavor is not how you want to spend your money.

Besides “Banfi” on the label, what defines a “good” wine?

The definition of a “good” wine is as subjective as the adjective itself. A high-quality wine may be loaded with extract, but if the flavor profile is not to your liking, you’d be hard-pressed to label it “terrific”. Conversely, a wine that may be overly sweet and cloying to one, may get top scores from another.

In general, you DO get what you pay for. A $10 bottle of wine, although technically clean and sound, will not have the layers of flavor and complexity that a $20 bottle possesses.

At first, a novice wine drinker may not be able to distinguish the difference between the two quality levels, but as his or her palate matures with the broadening of his tasting experiences, those distinctions will become more and more obvious and apparent.

How do you become proficient in wine?

Taste and read. Taste and read. Taste and read some more!

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