a bottle of plonk or an aston martin?

[Ken Gargett]

a bottle of DRC Romanee-Conti 1945 recently went for over half a mill. big bucks. the article from drinks queries what you'd prefer. if you have that sort of money, probably doesn't matter. long way from the days when i picked up the 83, granted a much lesser vintage than the 45 but still, for $220. that is $220, not $220,000. 

i've tried a number of romanee-conti's over the years and i do think that it is the greatest wine on the planet but that is still serious dosh. the 71 was life-changing. the 1929 a couple of years ago, was just as good. but if i ever have a spare half mill, i might find other uses. 

 

One bottle of 1945 DRC or an Aston Martin?

22nd October, 2018 by Rupert Millar

After the news that a single bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 1945 Romanée-Conti sold for an astounding US$558,000 at auction recently, Liv-ex has asked what else you could buy for that much money.

Photo: courtesy Sotheby’s

The sale of the bottle in New York the weekend before last, smashed the previous record for most expensive wine ever sold, which was a bottle of 1869 Lafite which went for US$233,000 in 2010.

Piers Morgan swiftly took to Twitter to announce the result “ridiculous” and even claimed one could buy “20” cases of 1961 Latour for the same amount.

Not quite, noted Liv-ex which crunched some numbers to see what half a million dollars could buy you.

As it happens, you could buy 105 bottles of 1961 Latour for that sum (the equivalent of nine 12-bottle cases). Not quite 20 cases but no puny amount of what is often considered one of the greatest fine wines of recent times.

Alternatively, you could buy 10 bottles of either the 2005 or 1990 vintages of La Romanée-Conti (if you absolutely had to have DRC) or 133 bottles (11 cases) of 2010 Petrus.

Looking beyond wine, half a million would also buy you: 400 ounces of gold, half a shred of the Banksy that “self-destructed” at auction recently, a one bedroom flat near Battersea Park, an Aston Martin DB11 or a private island in Panama.

Which, perhaps, just goes to show what good value most fine wine is really.

[Ritch]

Of course there is no guarantee that the wine is actually any good anymore either...

[Ritch]

Whilst we are on the subject of wine, what does Ken think of Lebanese wine?

[hedgeybaby]

I'll take the gold.

[Ken Gargett]

2 hours ago, Ritch said:

Whilst we are on the subject of wine, what does Ken think of Lebanese wine?

only familiar with musar and that can be rather exciting. 

[Ritch]

4 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

only familiar with musar and that can be rather exciting. 

Can be? I'm guessing it's hit or miss depending on the year? As the chap who makes it keeps kissing around with the recipe?

[BrightonCorgi]

Have had a couple of vintages of DRC and it's all that I must say, but I'll stick with another Aston Martin...

What are the odds those bottles will be consumed?

[Ken Gargett]

3 hours ago, Ritch said:

Can be? I'm guessing it's hit or miss depending on the year? As the chap who makes it keeps kissing around with the recipe?

serge hochar made it for years and was very highly respected. he fell off the perch a while back and i think his son or nephew took over. not sure he is quite such a talent. 

[GasGuy82]

@Ken Gargett Haven't there been arguments for years as to whether Romanee-Conti actually produced a '45, let alone the number of bottles that supposedly exist vs. the known production capacity of the vineyard, which if I remember is quite small?

[Ken Gargett]

38 minutes ago, GasGuy82 said:

@Ken Gargett Haven't there been arguments for years as to whether Romanee-Conti actually produced a '45, let alone the number of bottles that supposedly exist vs. the known production capacity of the vineyard, which if I remember is quite small?

it was definitely made. they had been fighting phylloxera for decades and it finally destroyed the vineyard. 45 was the last before they replanted on american rootstocks. but it was a very small vintage (i think the next one after 45 was 52 or 53). so certainly well less than a 1,000 bottles. 

and it is considered to be one of the most forged bottles of all time. you'd want to be very sure of the provenance. 

[Scotch&Stogie]

11 hours ago, Ritch said:

Of course there is no guarantee that the wine is actually any good anymore either...

This. Collecting wine that old has never been something I’ve understood. I can’t imagine it would taste good at all, much like I can’t image a cigar aged in excess of 50 years would be very good.

 

Now,  if someone has an extra of either laying around, I’m more than willing to be proven wrong. 

[Ken Gargett]

9 minutes ago, Scotch&Stogie said:

This. Collecting wine that old has never been something I’ve understood. I can’t imagine it would taste good at all, much like I can’t image a cigar aged in excess of 50 years would be very good.

 

Now,  if someone has an extra of either laying around, I’m more than willing to be proven wrong. 

depends so much on storage and also on the cork (a huge argument for screwcaps). 

but no doubt that the best wines can age for an incredibly long time. but they do become a lottery.

the other issues that people do not think about are that many peoples' tastes are such that they prefer younger wines. nothing wrong with that and you can love both. the problem is that the vast majority of people, including winelovers, have very little experience with older wines. so their palates are not attuned thereto. they see one and because they have no parameters as to what to expect, are often disappointed. 

but a great old wine will become more subtle and more complex and dispense with the primary flavours and move to much more tertiary ones.

i mentioned the 1929 in the original post. seriously, that wine should be drunk on bended knee with an orchestra in the background. enough to make one consider that there might indeed, be divinities beyond our understanding. almost. 

[cigaraholic]

Give me the keys!

[BrightonCorgi]

2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

serge hochar made it for years and was very highly respected. he fell off the perch a while back and i think his son or nephew took over. not sure he is quite such a talent. 

Musar is one of my favorite wines and had the honor meeting Serge once.

 

[Lotusguy]

Of course there is no guarantee that the wine is actually any good anymore either...

Looks like high shoulder fill, too. Tssk

[BrightonCorgi]

1 hour ago, Scotch&Stogie said:

This. Collecting wine that old has never been something I’ve understood. I can’t imagine it would taste good at all, much like I can’t image a cigar aged in excess of 50 years would be very good.

 

Now,  if someone has an extra of either laying around, I’m more than willing to be proven wrong. 

I am fan of old wine.  Not much is more epic in the dry wine world than a mature Burgundy hitting on all cylinders...  Bordeaux and Barolo can also tell quite a tale in the glass.  

[BrightonCorgi]

1 hour ago, cigaraholic said:

Give me the keys!

How about wine and an Aston?

 

[Ken Gargett]

15 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Musar is one of my favorite wines and had the honor meeting Serge once.

i was in a wine store in brizzy once and saw a bloke having a poke about. before i could speak to him (had to see the manager first), he left. i said to the manager that i was certain it was serge hochar but what the hell was he doing in brizzy. the bloke had no idea.

contacted the importers and they said he was up in Queensland on holidays. such a shame he did not do a dinner or anything like that but apparently just wanted a break and had chosen here. 

[Bill Hayes]

I'd spread my $ around with a bit left over for the mortgage.