Wineries cork costs with higher prices.

• Position: Triad

Even the most ardent fans of wines produced in the Yadkin Valley have to admit they're not cheap. Critics will point out that they cost nearly twice as much as comparable wines from California, Chile, South Africa or Australia.

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Margo Metzger, executive director of the North Carolina Wine and Grape Council, admits that consumers can find cheaper wines than Tar Heel varieties. "Most of the wineries are young, so we're talking about recovering real costs." One of those costs is the most basic--grapes. "The price of grapes here is about $1,100 a ton, about twice as much as in California."

Charlie Shelton, co-owner of Shelton Vineyards in Dobson, sells his wines for $16 to $40 a bottle, depending on the vintage. "Our winemakers taste wines that we feel are comparable and competition to us. Everything is priced to be competitive. Sometimes you even have to price some products below costs."

Lena Hobson, co-owner of RagApple Lassie in Boonville, calls pricing an inexact science and says most vintners in the Yadkin Valley American Viticultural Area are still paying off startup costs. "When we were writing a business plan, we looked at price ranges in North Carolina to see if that's something we can live with and still remain in business."

RagApple Lassie wines sell for $14 to $17 a bottle, and the company produced about 6,000 cases last year. By contrast, Duplin Winery in Rose Hill, the largest and oldest winery in the state, produced nearly 200,000 cases last year. The Eastern North Carolina winery uses native muscadine grapes rather than European ones grown in the Yadkin Valley AVA, and most bottles sell for $7.50 to $12.

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Mark Friszolowski, general manager and winemaker at Childress Vineyards in Lexington, says his pricing formula is simple. "We want to make wines at a profit, even if it's a small one. We're OK with our wine costing a little bit more money." Childress wines range from $11 to $60 a bottle.

Some even suggest that the wineries pump up their prices to avoid the notion that the product is, well, cheap. Hobson says she's seen that sort of thing during her days of volunteering with nonprofits. "If you give something away, people do not attach a value to it." But artificially inflating prices is risky, she says.

Metzger pooh-poohs the notion. "There may be instances of that in the world of wine, but I haven't seen it here in North Carolina." Says Shelton, "There are some recipes for disaster...