PurpleLips

The way TCA was explained to me, it is a two stage process to infect wine. First there is a chemical process that takes place in the cork and secondly, the products of that interact chemically with the wine itself. That said, serving in restaurants, some sommeliers/servers will wave the cork discreetly under their noses to check for a whiff of cork taint out of habit, because at one time that was how it was done. But sometimes a wine reveals itself to be corked even after the cork smelled clean, and conversely, sometimes the cork just reeks of TCA, yet the wine is clean.

I guess I should just be grateful there's a wine glut and I can afford any wine at all. Come the next phylloxera-scale wine disaster I'll just kick myself for bypassing law school and opting out of organized crime...

Sorry Sneakeater - it's fun it's fun!

I have no problems with "luxury items" being priced as the market will bear. I have no desire for fancy sports cars or dripping diamonds. I have a moderate interest in high-end fashion but a bit too much figure, anyway. But I'm fully dedicated to my love of food and wine. And sometimes that's poutine, and sometimes it's truffles. Tell me truffles are expensive because of how they are harvested, packaged and shipped and I'll pay pay pay. But with these famous (and frankly, this is what sets the bordeaux apart) wines the prices aren't relative to the product, only to the buyer. Who didn't laugh darkly when the Bordeaux prices weren't declared for a month while the chateaux waited for Mr. Parker to show up? I wouldn't volunteer to judge the "worthiness" of bordeaux buyers. But it burns me that I can't enjoy some wines as often as I'd like because of a commodity market that's grown onto something I'm so passionate about. What am I saying? IT'S NOT FAIR. Laugh away

Ouch!

Geeze, I'm new here! Am I stepping on toes?! Of course the wine should cost what it's worth! And art collectors are most usually delighted to lend out their artworks for shows and to bring people into their homes to view them.

One obvious difference is that one doesn't "consume" artwork (in most instances) in order to enjoy it. Barring the collector (there's that dirty word again!) who hides a work away, many people can experience a work of art without owning it.

I know of a high-end, high-profile restaurant in my home town that uses just one very large standard glass that I would normally not use for sauv blancs and others, plus keeps an even larger (!) Riedal for super-expensive wines (that way, the other customers can tell they've splurged ). While this place has some very legitimate space constraints, it also has a very respectable cellar. I think right now the trend to over-large glasses is winning out over more appropriate choices.

Rebel Rose makes a point I forgot to mention. Wine, barring small variances over vintages and newer vs established producers etc, has a measurable value. Generally speaking, there is a difference between a $40 bottle of wine and a $100 bottle of wine that someone who spends time thinking (or obsessing - you can say tomato) about the wine they drink can discern. Now our personal preferences come into play here too, (90% of the time you can give me a $35 bottle of Alsatian Riesling over a $70 bottle of say, Australian Shiraz - just my pref). But it really becomes difficult when these first growths (and others) have prices in the stratosphere. Is a first growth Bordeaux really better than a fine Cab blend from a relatively obscure artisan producer in Cali by $600++ per bottle? Can it be? I mean, at that price, shouldn't it wash the dishes after dinner or drive me home? Or are we spending the extra gazillions of dollars to experience the tradition of Bordeaux wines as kings, queens, popes have done throughout time. And, of course, so that we aren't ignorant of what the Bordeaux experience is (especially in the presence of more well-to-do wine drinkers). Anyway, yes I'll continue to splurge (and feel guilty about it) very infrequently for the rest of my life. And should I win the lottery any time soon, I too will have a cellar packed with "the classics". But it will require near-constant restocking and I'll never be accused of being a "collector". (But an alcoholic, maybe.)

Among other things, I'm occasionally hired to go into these cellars and pack bottles when a collector moves house, or runs out of space and invests in offsite storage. Overall, they are extremely passionate about wine. But many of them are only extremely passionate about some wines. Early on in this post did someone mention vinho verde? I had one such collector practically spit in my face when I brought a (truly delightful) bottle to his cottage to drink by the lake (among other, showier bottles, thank goodness). I know enough not to be embarrassed or offended. But there you are. They want the best, and the best, of course, costs the most and is the most famous. And for many of these people, once the section in the cellar for the Bordeaux is filled, it is intended to sit there. So people can see it. One collector I know has a beautiful cellar in his basement where all the bottles are visible behind a glass wall. I've never seen a bottle come out of there. (And I've certainly never been hired to update his inventory list!) Because the wines he and his wife drink are all in wine fridges in the room next door. It was that cellar that made me realize there is a "literary classics bookshelf" element to wine collecting for some. Sure they are going to have to make room to add 2005s to the collection since it's gathering so much attention. But I don't think more than two or three cases gets shuffled around in that cellar in any given year. And it doesn't have any maturity issues. It's their money, they should spend it as they like. Sour grapes, oh yeah. It burns me not to be able to have a first growth with dinner every Sunday if I want. As a side note, even the Bordeaux houses realize there is a problem. I've heard of restaurants jumping through hoops to make a chateaux trust the older-vintage wine they were selling them would end up on a wine list, and not in some collector's cellar. Of course, I don't think the restaurant got a discount to go along with the sale

Well, if you'd argue every leather-bound copy of "War and Peace", "Bleak House" or "The Magic Mountain" gets read, I won't burst your bubble... Nevertheless, prices for Bordeaux are set by collectors. Prices are set by the case and they are set a year before those cases ship. I don't imagine the chateaux give a passing thought to the unwashed masses who might splurge on a single bottle of Le Pin to celebrate an event 10 years in the future. I'm not up for a boycott, but for all the Bordeaux I can afford to "invest" in, I might as well be.

Still, the wine cellars of those with the income to burn all have a fine collection of first growths, the odd bottle of which will be drunk, the vast majority of which their kids will fight over as inheritance. They are like literary classics on a well-stocked bookshelf. They're there so everyone can see the owner knows well enough, but the spines are likely uncreased.

But let's face it - Bordeaux prices are what they are only because of the people who buy them with absolutely no intention of ever drinking them. "Works of art" or objects of financial speculation, these first growth Bordeaux's aren't for wine lovers. Thank goodness so many other parts of the world are making wines to bring tears to the eye and turn great meals into great memories...