In the hands of mother nature, a grape begins as a bud, formed in the leaf axil and bound up tightly. With the right amount of sun, some nutrients, and an agreeable climate, the bud breaks unfurl into bloom, just like that. In a matter of only about 15 days, you have a flower. That flower, thanks to its ability to self-pollinate, grows itself a seed. And to protect that seed from the elements (and make it a tasty treat that birds and animals will eat and spread forth into the world), a berry forms around that seed. Lo and behold: the grape. Aside from some particularities concerning something called lateral meristem primordia and inflorescence, it’s a relatively simple process. And, if we’re lucky, at the end of that process, that little grape ends up in our glass of wine.
But in some ways, wine seems much more complicated than the unpretentious grapes from which it comes. After Prohibition in the US, alcohol prices shot up higher than they were before—partly as a strategy to help the country recover from the Depression. For the past 100 years, those creeping prices have continued to march upwards, showing no signs of slowing down (as recent headlines about Napa Valley indicate). And while prices have ballooned, so has the market itself. Today, the wine and champagne industry is massive.
A Tipping Point
In 2020, the global wine market was valued at $417.85 billion—and it’s expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 6.4% from 2021 to 2028. That kind of playing field encourages a lot of players, from growers to distributors to importers—and they have dollar signs in their eyes. So when you walk into a wine shop and see four walls packed top-to-bottom with bottles, it’s likely relationships (and the likelihood of profit) got them there. Price tags that read $25, $50, and into the triple digits abound.
Sometimes, the scaling of the prices is due to the demand for a particular wine or wine from a specific region. That’s where the salable “terroir” comes in. Terroir, or the unique characteristics of microclimates that produce especially delectable grapes, can claim that higher demand. Thus, the price follows. It’s important to point out, however, that no other fruit or vegetable warrants this kind of man-made prestige. At most, exceptional produce usually just gets a simple tip of the hat: “These peas are delicious,” or, “That was the best mandarin I’ve ever had.” Of course, there are exceptions—like $50 Oishii strawberries, which are having a moment on TikTok.
It becomes difficult to suss out when you’re paying for something valuable or when you’re just paying for hype, especially when prices endlessly crawl upward. The wine industry has long prospered on hype. In Napa County, vineyard land can now cost well over $400,000 an acre, a ton of grapes can easily rack up to $20,000, a basic wine tasting that cost $20 in 2016 now costs $40, and many Napa Cabernets are selling for $200 or more. All because the industry demands it should be.
Balancing It Out
The manufacturer-wholesaler-retailer paradigm is the wine industry’s traditional operating system, and it’s a big piece in the puzzle of pricing. When each middleman wants a bigger cut of the money, growers and winemakers end up getting paid less and consumers end up paying more. But, as the age of the Internet has proven before, it doesn’t have to be that way. For the first time on a large scale, operating within a different framework is possible.
Naked Wines, an online direct-to-consumer wine shop that operates on a customer-funding model with monthly subscriptions, works to remove some of the barriers and puffery of wine by connecting wine drinkers to the winemakers directly. Through their model, the traditional factory line of national sales managers, regional distributors, and retail buyers (which all add markups) is gone. Cutting out the middle-folk allows you to get great wines at honest prices by buying directly from the winery, while customer funding supports independent winemakers.
Naked Wines has amassed a tremendous roster of winemakers they support to make premium wines that you won’t find in stores. Currently, it funds 97 winemakers in the US (many of whom worked with some of the most notable wineries in the world before leaving the traditional market), allowing each to make exclusive wines and offer them for up to 60 percent less than what you would pay in the market. Naked also offers long-term contracting with winemakers to ensure that grape growers and vineyards don’t have to flex and surge pricing based on annual harvests to make ends meet. The ability to give winemakers cash flow helps to stem reactionary pricing. It’s as close to a win-win for the drinker and the maker as the modern wine industry has ever seen.
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The Right Pairing
Matt Parish, an independent winemaker with an impressive resume, is a perfect case study of where the industry’s been, where it’s headed, and why an innovative platform like Naked Wines can change it for the better. New Zealand native Parish worked for a decade as a "flying winemaker and consultant" working harvests in both hemispheres and in regions within New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and France. In 2001, he was recruited to the US as a group director and chief winemaker in Napa, holding roles at some of the world’s biggest wine companies, including Constellation Wines U.S., for 15 years. In 2016, he left that part of the industry to become an independent winemaker, working with Naked Wines. Now, the award-winning wines he’s creating have his own name on them, and they start at a price of $14.99 on Naked Wines. And trust us, that $15 spent on a Parish bottle is not the same $15 you’d be spending in a traditional wine store. Because of the funding structure of Naked Wines, Parish is able to deliver the traditional top-quality Napa and Sonoma wines that made the regions famous (and of which he's an expert), as well as valuable wines from lesser known neighboring regions like El Dorado Hills and Contra Costa. Finally, quality wine isn't defined by a price.
Veteran winemakers who have led wineries including Silver Oak, Penfolds Grange, Merus, Rothschild, and Tignanello—the famed Super Tuscan breakout brand—are all present on the Naked Wines roster. But the current rock stars of the industry make up just a fraction of the community. There’s expansive room for the future of winemaking, too.
Naked Wines supports new vintners so that customers can gain access to the best emerging brands, new styles, and the next generation of winemakers. Vintner Kyle Burke is the first recipient of the Naked & The Roots Fund’s Emerging Vintner Program scholarship, which funds her directly to craft her own exclusive wines in Napa Valley, with mentorship from the legendary Silver Oak winemaker Daniel Baron and a contract for grapes from Two Brothers Vineyard. In July, she released her first wine, a Sonoma Valley Chardonnay 2021. “I can very proudly say this wine is worth any experience, any table, any home, any group of friends or family it shares space with,” Burke says.
And that’s what good wine does: It ensures that when you’re shopping for a bargain, a night of indulgence, or putting your best foot forward with a gift, the price paid goes into the quality of the wine. It’s not a masterful trick or tactic—you should get what you pay for. Naked Wines finally cracked the code on how we can genuinely honor that humble little grape.
This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for Naked Wines.
