My last blog went into considerable length (i.e. potentially too long for anyone other than wine geeks) about the relationship between price and quality in wine. My intention at the start of that blog was to tell you a bit about Joel Gott, a California wine producer who has bucked the trends that most producers of wine in the $12-$25 category follow. Shortly into that topic, I realized a foundation for understanding the reasoning behind wine prices would be necessary to understand the significance of Joel’s efforts. So as I now get to Joel, if you haven’t read that blog, please read it first here.

To be perfectly honest, it is not very often that wines in this price point leave me wanting a case in the basement. It’s not being a wine snob. In fact I’m usually content with whatever is in my glass if someone else is pouring. It’s just that wines in this category tend to get overshadowed by some of the amazing wines that people push under the nose of a sommelier. Oh the sacrifices I have to make. So when I met Joel and tasted through his wines, admittedly, I was not expecting to be blown away. And then Joel’s wines blew me away.

What is so different about this guy? For starters, he is actually enthusiastic about making his wines. At these price points and the production volumes that usually come with them, winemakers are never excited about the wine they’re making. But when Joel leans over, practically falling out of his chair, grinning excitedly like a teenage boy after his first kiss, and explains how he crushes his Washington Riesling grapes in Washington to maintain the fresh fruit flavors and then trucks the refrigerated must all the way down to the winery in Napa so he can keep a close eye on inoculation and fermentation, it was hard not to raise an eyebrow and think, “Is this guy for real?” Most producers in this price range would buy fruit closer to home even if the conditions aren’t ideal in that climate, have it fermented in Washington and give up control of the winemaking, or ignore the damage done by driving the grapes down before crushing.

Then Joel tells me about his Chardonnay. For years he has worked with vineyards in Monterey and Lake Counties as well as The Russian River Valley and Napa Valley. He talks about the vineyards like they are children, each adored for their distinct characteristics. He vinifies the wines separately and then blends them to make a Chardonnay with more character than most triple its price. Still I’m saying to myself, “Nobody does this for a $15 bottle!”

His wife and partner, Sarah, who previously made the wines of Joseph Phelps and Quintessa, lends yet another dimension of quality to the whole Gott lineup. Everything about what Joel does is usually done on a much smaller scale, demanding much higher prices. But get this, he really does want everybody to be able to afford a good wine. Using my Tim and Tom analogy, which surely you’ve read by now, Joel is putting Tomlike care and effort into a production of Timlike proportions. The result is what we’re all after - great wine, great price.

We are in times where value in anything is important. Wine drinkers have a lot of options these days. You could drink a new wine every day of your life and still never get to them all. And there are hundreds of producers that are getting better every day at delivering clean, easy drinking wines at a good price. But while there are a lot more clean and easy to drink wines available, these producers could all use a few lessons from Joel Gott on how to get complexity and depth into a value priced bottle. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and try these wines. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Eric Arsenault is the Sommelier for The Chop House and the Director of Wine and Spirits for Mainstreet Ventures. He blogs about wine for AnnArbor.com