MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Focus on icon status can overshadow quality
Rather than blindly following other cult producers, Chris and Suzaan Alheit put quality and integrity first
The 21st century has become the era of cult wines, pretty much throughout the wine-drinking world. Before about 1980 you would have had to look long and hard to find any demand for brands where the personality of the producer was the primary reason for making a purchase decision. In those now distant days there were also no wine critics making a living by putting a score to a wine.
Robert Parker changed that with The Wine Advocate. Once scores (usually out of 100) replaced seemingly more esoteric wine knowledge as a way of determining what to drink, the door was opened. Any wine an influential critic rated 100 — or close enough to the magical number — immediately sold out. This in turn imbued it with rarity status. Increased demand fed the beast. Suddenly cult wines/producers came to dominate the discourse...
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