@Sturgis,
Quote:(also curious why Spendius would hold a bottle all these years)
I'm not an expert on these matters but the general drift is that the price of the wine in a certain number of years will be significantly higher that at the time of purchase. It is not for drinking, it is for buying and selling.
In a particular year the weather is such and such and the wine's qualities are affected by it. It's taste development as it matures.
Also, the particular vintage has a limited production and as it is bought and drunk the number of bottles diminishes. Obviously.
An expert taster can assess a wine's capacity for improvement and impart the information to others. Insider trading. If it is a wine that is popular from the start and matures in an approved way constantly it isn't long before the price begins to rise. Placing an astute word in a friendly journalist's ear about these two manifestations causes a further rise and by the time there's only one case left in the world and the vintage has taken on mythological dimensions the bell can be rung with it.
A bottle of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits, France, for example costs up to $70,000. There are many vintages costing over $1,000.
It's a bit like the lottery but with an expert wine taster's advice. Who might have been induced. Mr Waugh could not be induced except possibly by red hot pincers.
So when our ladies recommend a wine one has to bear in mind that they might have put up to it by a devious intelligence working in the shadows.
I go on the alcohol content/price ratio as the government does.
The tax on alcohol drives addicts into boot polish, meths and such things: which generally kills them. Thus the tax is killing them but they are not considered victims of government policy because they are not as photogenic as many other victims.
