What is a good wine value?

Is value based on price? Quality? Ratings? Or all three?

Neil Monnens, a San Francisco advertising executive, believes he has the answer. He created The Wine Blue Book, a listing of the value of wines derived from a quality-price-ratio formula using wine ratings and prices.

The idea occurred to him one day during a blind tasting by a monthly wine group he joined. One wine they tasted was $60 and another was $20, but both wines were extremely close in point scores. The group concurred that the $20 wine was the best value, and that set Monnens thinking about how to show the relative value.

His system begins with scores. He checks eight Web sites that use the 100-point scoring method (he has subscriptions so he can have access to all the scores, but declines to reveal the sites). Since not all sites review the same wines, he must have a minimum of two scores for each wine in order to include that wine. He then ranks all the wines receiving the same scores together.

Monnens checks on Wine-Searcher.com, which has a database of about 8,000 retail wine merchants, for prices of each wine and determines the average price at the lower end of the range for each wine, and the average of all wines with that same score. As indicated on his Web site, a value index is determined by taking the average low retail price of a wine and dividing it by the average low retail price for all wines with that same score.

The average value index is 100 percent, so anything below that is a better value, anything over that, not as good a value.

“It’s like golf,” Monnens said. “The lower the better.”

He started publishing his newsletter in September 2004 with reviews of the 2000 and 2001 Bordeaux. Since then he has reviewed wines from elsewhere in France, Italy, Australia and Germany, and domestic cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, chardonnay, syrah, zinfandel, merlot and sauvignon blanc, along with Port and Champagne.

He started by featuring a single varietal in each issue, but by the time the issue came out, many of the wines were no longer available because they had been released and reviewed by critics earlier in the year. “I had a lot of wines (listed) but didn’t have prices because they were no longer available,” he said.

Now he’s publishing all wines that are reviewed during each month. The October 2007 issue covers all wines reviewed during September, regardless of their origin, varietal or vintage. “That’s much more timely,” he said. “Wine reviews will be only one month old.”

It will be possible to include the same wine in two consecutive issues, depending on when the reviews are available.  

Listed for each wine are the average score, price, availability and the quality index.

The original newsletter name was QPR Wines, but, Monnens said, people didn’t connect the name to what it was. He considered several names but decided on The Wine Blue Book because “blue book means value” and something special. He changed the name earlier this year and under the new format publishes monthly, rather than the previous 18 times per year.  

It’s a one-man operation. Monnens figures he averages about 60 hours of work on each issue. He has about 700 subscribers, and offers a free trial issue to anyone who inquires on his Web site. Subscriptions are $25 for 12 issues.

Previously more than 1,000 wines were listed in each issue, but under the new format the number will change because some critics review wines monthly, some review them bi-monthly and some quarterly. The October issue has 580 wines, but the November issue will have many more because it will include two bi-monthly evaluators and one quarterly.  

What are the best values currently? “Rieslings and sauvignon blancs.”

The worst values? “Red Burgundies and white Burgundies. And Napa cabs, a little higher than average.”

In the most recent issue which rated West Coast cabernet sauvignon, 17 Napa Valley cabs rated at an average of 94 points had a quality index over 100 percent, and of those receiving 93 points, 24 were over 100 percent, four were over 200 percent and one was higher than 300 percent.

Monnens has been in advertising since 1989 and now specializes on online advertising for a major high-tech company. He became interested in wine after moving to San Francisco from Southern California, and “I fell in love with white zinfandel,” he admitted. He joined a wine group and began experimenting with other wines and soon asked himself, “How did I ever like this stuff?” referring to white zin.

He bought a home with a two-acre merlot vineyard in Napa Valley, “but I realized I didn’t want to do that part of wine” — growing grapes or making wine. “The nerdy number part took over.” He since has sold the home.

Monnens said his wine cellar has changed. “Why should I spend $150 (on a bottle of wine) when I know there’s one (just as good) out there at $50 to $60,” he asked.

In addition to publishing The Wine Blue Book, Monnens also produces a Web site that lists all new releases by wineries. It’s a free service to wineries and consumers, and between 400 and 500 wineries now send him information about their releases. Releases are posted in alphabetical order by winery. Wineries are also listed alphabetically and by region. Releases are listed as far ahead as December 2008.

The Wine Blue Book can be found at www.winebluebook.com.

Wine release dates can be found at www.winerelease.com.