To Find Best Wine, Make Like Detective

How far would you go for a bottle of wine?

Most people probably would travel about as far as the corner liquor store. But for some oenophiles seeking the product of a specific vintner, the quest goes a lot farther than that.

For some, their mission begins with Mark Pope, the 47-year-old founder, boss and head wine finder at Bounty Hunter, a Napa company that sells vintages from the finest wineries, along with pricey cigars and even gourmet foods, such as smoked salmon and olive oil.

All this is advertised in an attractive brochure modeled on the J. Peterman clothing catalog. Top item for the past holidays: the “.44 Magnum Special,” a one-of-a-kind collection of 44 1994 wines from such luminaries of the California scene as Dominus Estates, Paradigm, Stag’s Leap and Harlan Estate.

The tab--a mere $44,000.

Plus shipping.

And how does Pope track down these magnificent vintages? He cruises California’s celebrated wine country in an ancient green Chevy pickup dubbed Merle, his Jack Russell terrier Gus at his side.

There’s “a lot of tasting and a lot of spitting,” Pope said as we lunched al fresco on tomato bisque and a crisp, dry Blockheadia Ringnosii ’97 sauvignon blanc outside his Quonset hut-like office/warehouse on the banks of the bucolic Napa River. “Research is not pure hell.”

Others, rather than deal through middlemen, prefer to chase those vintages on their own. The finer wineries have mailing lists to announce the season’s products, but getting on those lists is like trying to get on the season ticket list for the Green Bay Packers.

At Colgin Cellars in Oakville, a voice on an answering machine throws cold water on the dreams of wine lovers.

“I must let you know there is an extremely long waiting list, and our production is tiny,” the message warns. Those who insist are told to mail in their request.

At Screaming Eagle, another Oakville boutique winery, owner Jean Phillips’ message is even more depressing.

“I’m sorry, but the wines are sold out for an indefinite period of time, so please don’t leave your name on the machine,” she cautions.

At Pahlmeyer, a real person answers the phone, but the news isn’t much better. Jayson Pahlmeyer’s wine is spoken for, sold either to individual collectors or to stores he’s dealt with for years.

Pahlmeyer’s chardonnay is so hard to get, it was featured as a plot twist in “Disclosure,” the reverse sexual discrimination movie starring Demi Moore and Michael Douglas.

In the movie, she tempts Douglas, a wine aficionado, with a bottle of the exclusive vino, and that fact is later used in evidence at Moore’s trial.

“When that happened, it was like craziness,” said Pahlmeyer, who was an attorney until he acquired some prime wine grape acreage and was able to combine his love of drinking wine with the opportunity to make some.

For those who can afford expensive bottles but can’t afford the services of people like Pope, there are other means of locating fine wines.

Auctions, especially at schools in the Napa area where the children of vintners are educated, are an excellent place to pick up fine wines.

The St. Helena High School Band earned $19,000 at a recent auction, while the St. Helena Elementary School sold $95,000 worth of wine.

“I sell my wine for $60, but people who buy it could turn around and sell it at auction for $500 to $600,” Pahlmeyer said. “The people who buy it make more money on it than I do.”

Of course, in the Internet age, a neat wine is as close as your computer.

Dan Hanson, a 43-year-old Dallas financial consultant, mines the Net for wines to augment his 600-bottle collection.

Hanson says state laws make it tough to have wine shipped to his home from California. Fortunately, he has a solution.

“I have wine shipped to my father’s address in Oregon,” he said, “and then either I pick it up on visits or he brings it here.”

Michael Johns, who started collecting in 1991 when a heart attack persuaded him to switch from beer to wine, now has a cellar of 1,600 to 1,800 bottles.

“We’ve gone from relatively basic wines to very excellent wines,” Johns said from Ann Arbor, Mich., where he’s a manufacturer’s representative to the automobile industry.

“The things you have to do to obtain fine wines is to become a good customer of the store you’re dealing with, or have contacts with companies that buy cellars after divorces, deaths. . . . You have to keep track of those opportunities.”