Update: Wine prices 2021

Making sense of an $18 Italian chardonnay blend, the California grape glut, and higher wine prices despite flat demand

Where's the $18 Italian chardonnay?

Would you pay $18 for an Italian chardonnay blend? Chardonnay, of course, is hardly an Italian white grape and it certainly doesn’t speak to terroir the way Italian wine is supposed to. But there it was, on the dinner table, in its heavy bottle with a big punt – just like any other luxury wine.

Which, as much as anythin…