"In the wake of a recent sales slowdown, Frank Melis, wine director of the Cannery Wine Cellar at Fisherman's Wharf e-mailed about 300 wineries to warn that many of his loyal customers were abandoning California wines for lower priced imports...One of the wineries receiving Melis' pleas, GustavoThrace of Napa, is cutting the price of it's latest vintage of 1,000 cases of Chardonnay from $40 a bottle to $35. The winery was started five years ago by longtime winemaker Gustavo Brambila (a veteran of the Peju and Grgich Hills wineries) and former attorney Thrace Bromberger. It allocated most of its wines to restaurants, but demand has slowed. "A table of six that used to buy three bottles of wine now buys one, brings another from home and doesn't pay a corkage fee," Said Bromberger. "The economy is no longer strong enough to pull through expensive wines." As a way to curb costs without severely cutting quality, Gustavo tharce is using 25 percent used French oak barrels to age its Chardonnay rather than buying all new barrels every year. Since the barrels cost $600 each, that's a savings of about 75 cents per bottle." Peter Sinton, Chronicle Senior Writer, San Francisco Chronicle, Price Cuts make this a good time to be a wine lover. December 23, 2001
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