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Saturday Morning News

'Cult Wines' Make Impact on Market

Aired May 20, 2000 - 9:55 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if you haven't done Napa, you've got to do it in your lifetime, don't you agree?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. And when you go there, you can check out all these big brand names, you know, the kinds with the screw tops. But also you might want to check out some of the off- brands, shall we say.

CNN's sommelier, Rusty Dornin, uncorks this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It might as well be nectar of the gods, wine from a handful of small California vineyards in Napa Valley that wine experts are calling cult wines, rarely seen on store shelves. Screaming Eagle Cabernet is one.

ANDREW WEBER, WORLD WINE EXCHANGE: When you get on the mailing list, you can purchase anywhere between $75 and $100 a bottle, and now we're finding them out on the market for anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 a bottle.

DORNIN: Ann Colgin of Colgin Cellars produces less than 500 cases of wine a year. Colgin has 4,500 people on a waiting list. Some refuse to wait.

ANN COLGIN, COLGIN CELLARS: Somebody wanted to trade a case of 1994 Colgin Cellars wine for a Mercedes SUV when they first came out, which was crazy. And I didn't have a case to trade him.

TERRY BROOKSHIRE, WINE COLLECTOR: This is '96 Maya (ph).

DORNIN: Collector Terry Brookshire has a few cult wine favorites. He won't pay outrageous prices, but understands why others do.

BROOKSHIRE: This is human desire to possess things that nobody else has.

DORNIN: If nobody else has it, then someone will pay a lot of money for it, which is why Internet wine auction sites are full of speculative sellers.

(on camera): Once a cult wine leaves the vineyards, that's when the real frenzy begins. It may be sold for up to 10 times its original price, and the vintners don't cash in on the profits.

(voice-over): Doug Shafer of Shafer Vineyards sells his Hillside Select for $110 a bottle. It goes for twice that on the Internet.

DOUG SHAFER, SHAFER VINEYARDS: It's a fruit, huh?

DORNIN: Shafer says great wines come from great vineyards, ones with characteristics that work their own special magic.

SHAFER: It's a lot of volcanic soils, very shallows soils so the vines are stressed, they don't produce a lot of fruit, the berries are very small, which gives you very intense, concentrated wines, high- extract wines.

DORNIN: Out-oof-this-world prices are what wine experts say is a little taste of heaven.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Napa Valley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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