TLDR: Here are 2 links that explain how we derive value:
For people who like to read good:
Some questions for the bean counters
Is there is a place for a R40 bottle of wine? It would seem so! Namely the bottom shelf of your local supermarket. Is there space for a R400 bottle of wine? Perhaps a more debatable point, but the fact that our winemakers keep making them would suggest the existence of some sort of niche that they’re all aiming at.
Now…that’s a factor of 10 from cheapest to most expensive item on the scale. (In reality there is a far larger scale, but we will leave the Paul Sauer- and Villa Fonté- outliers to their own devices for now). Where you fit into that investment scale will all be affected by how cynical, affluent, sensitive, gullible, passionate, or informed you are.
But before you get all self-righteous about considered your position on the matter is, it worth acknowledging that there are fully functioning, sane human beings at every point on that spectrum. It’s not only crazed alcoholics on the bottom end of the scale, and lobotomized, gullible, senseless trust fund kids on the top end.
Which would imply that, in the most unhelpful conclusion imaginable, that a wine is worth only what you are willing to pay for it. As infuriating as this non-answer is, it is the basis for two pieces linked below, only I got a real engineer to draw some graphs and make it all seem legit: