Hobbs: High cost of Malbec

When discussing Corie Brown's article on Argentina, the high cost of Paul Hobbs' highly rated wines came up.  The subject is broached again in the San Francisco Chronicle by the always tuned in Linda Murphy.

She says:

 

$150 Argentine Malbec?  
- Linda Murphy
  Thursday, February 2, 2006
 

 

Paul Hobbs of Sebastopol produces a $150 Malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina. That's right, $150.

Is his 2003 Vina Cobos Cobos Marchiori Vineyard Mendoza Malbec worth the price?

Let's just say it earned four stars on our four-star rating system, that it's an amazingly deep and powerful mouthful of exotic blackberry, blueberry and plum fruit, with spice and toast notes, a meaty texture and velvety tannins . . . and that it sells out.

After that, the wine's value is in the palate of the beholder.

Hobbs, who also makes fine single-vineyard wines from Sonoma County and Napa Valley grapes under his Paul Hobbs Winery label, is a partner with the husband-and-wife Mendoza winemaking team of Andrea Marchiori and Luis Barraud in Vina Cobos. If their $150 Cobos is too rich for you, try the 2003 Vina Cobos Bramare ($85) or the 2004 Vina Cobos El Felino ($25) Mendoza Malbecs (see "The Chronicle's Wine Selections" this page). Both are winners.

High praise, high price.

I guess one has to ask, with labor costs so low and land prices in Mendoza so inexpensive (on a worldwide scale) how can this wine be so expensive? 

Is this an attempt -- as many have done in many other parts of the world -- to put their wine on the map by pricing it so high?  Or is this where the Argentina malbec market should be?

Unlike many other regions where this debate is ongoing, Mendoza -- with its Hobbs and one or two of Catenas offerings -- has few who seek to peg the price so far ahead of others and almost makes one ask... how can one great wine (e.g. Alto Los Hormigas Reserve or Achaval-Ferrer's wines) cost so much less than another great wine from the region?