How much would you pay for a bottle of wine? Come on, it's a fair question. We all have our price point comfort zone. How do we arrive at this number? Do you reach into your pocket and say, "I have $30 and I need $20 worth of gas. I guess I can spend $10 on wine today." Or do we have some comfort level that says ok I can spend $15 but $20 is too much.
What if I said I had a bottle of wine with soft integrated tannins, a good amount of fruit, earthiness and a great balance. Would you pay $15 for this bottle, maybe. Then I told you the bottle also had a great review. Still a maybe? Now I tell you this, it's a 2000 bordeaux. Still maybe or did I get your attention. Maybe 2000 bordeaux doesn't mean anything to you.
Many wine critics touted the 2000 vintage as the "vintage of the century." What does that mean to you and I? Many people thought the vintage was extremely overpriced. However, the laws of supply and demand won out. How do I know this? Go to your local liquor store and look for a 2000 bordeaux on the shelf... good luck. The vintage sold out despite high prices. Were the critic's correct about the vintage? I think so but you may not.
For me the question still remains, would you pay $15 for this bottle of wine... 10 years ago. Maybe 10 years ago that was more than you would spend. You need to factor in the age worthiness of the wine though. For me this always changes my thinking. For me an aged wine always takes on a different character. A softness and smooth balance that makes a wine superb to drink. But how do you describe this quality if you've never experienced it. The tannins get very soft and imperceivable. The fruit gets smaller as well while the complexity of the wine and acidity increases.
So why age wine and would you pay the $15 dollar price tag? To answer that you need to understand also that in todays market this bottle will be difficult to find and much more expensive. This $15 bottle may now only be found on a restaurant wine list for $60 - $75. Now would you buy this wine?
For me the answer was yes. I knew the greatness of the vintage. I also wanted to start a wine cellar. That is I wanted to put away wines that would be a greater value in the future. I put together a wine tasting of wines that had good reviews and were described with qualities I thought I would like. After tasting these wines, I went back and bought the wines that I thought would be good investments for my cellar. Now I am beggining to be able to enjoy some of these wines. Thanks to my efforts I will continue to be able to do so for decades to come. These wines will become my special occasion wines holidays, weddings and so on.
Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.
Joan Collins
#wine, #tomcook, #price
....Tom Cook
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