Sigh. Prices of wine in 1976/now

This is not for those easily offended or disturbed (not that we have any of THOSE here recently or anything…)

Shown are wines priced in 1976, with a comparison of those prices based purely on inflation, versus current value, as supplied by Yves Durand…

Sigh.

Please lock this thread. It pains me to see These prices. Damn I was born in the wrong decade.

I need to sue my old man for not buying a lot of these. Check that, make that all of these.

We can only blame those who are willing to pay the insane prices. Without them we wouldn’t be having this discussion

Keep in mind that a typical house (at least here in California) also costs 10 times as much as it did back then (or more in more desirable areas).

You don’t need to go back to 1976. When I stumble upon some mail offers from around 2000, I cry.

2000 1st growths in Mag we available as futures in early 2002 (I think that’s right) for $2,700 per 6-bottle case of mags…

Thanks goodness I can console myself that I was in high school at the time. These prices are incredible.

Those prices were cheap only if you were pretty well off back then. You can go on and on about how cheap things were back when. The price of IBM, gasoline, housing, etc.

Tom, do look at the adjusted prices, which are dollar value pricing versus current market values. Shown are 1976 prices, those same prices in 2014 dollars adjusted for inflation, and current value.

Tom, Todd is right.

When I was buying classified growth Bordeaux and Burgundy in the early to mid 80s, it was possible to stock my cellar on my yearly salary of $18-20K. Except for DRC (any maybe de Vogue?), you could pretty much buy any grand cru Red in two figures, often $50 or less. Same with whites (probably not Montrachet).

Here are prices I paid:

Case each of '79 Pichon Lalande and '81 Leoville Las Cases - $156/case
Case of '82 Leoville Las Cases (futures) - $192
'80 Vosne Romanee “Les Brulees” and “Cros Parantoux”, Henri Jayer (with 20% discount) - $24/btl
'80 Echezeaux, Henri Jayer (same discount) - $30/btl

Some friends and I did a Ch. Latour vertical back to '49. That vintage was the only one that cost more than $100/btl and barely, at that.

I could go on, but I don’t need to get any more depressed.

Life would be so much easier if everybody just understood that.

Ever wonder what it will be like 30 years from now? Is a similar bull market even POSSIBLE??

Ahhh, delusions. They’re what keep us (in)sane.

I clearly should have stocked my cellar when I was 10 years old.

Any chance you have the image in a larger file? I’m having trouble reading the numbers (and I’m young and have perfect vision!).

No but I can email it to you. Is your email address current in your profile?

The only prices I have for depressing reference points were the prices of Classified Bordeaux when I came out of law school in 1992, when you could buy wines from great '80s and 1990 vintages for $40 and under, like Lynch Bages, Pichon Baron, PLL, Garose, Cos, Talbot, etc. Truth is though, I can more readily afford these wines now, than then, given income growth over 20 years. So I can lament price increase, but I won’t, and in truth, I really focus more on other great wines in lower price categories anyway. Now if I had a time machine . . . . Nah, I would go back to college years for fraternity fun over vino!

Even as recently as 2000 vintage, Bordeaux was within reach. I bought Leoville Barton for $40, Lynch Bages for $55.

IIRC, a bottle of each of these approximated the cost of a case of Heineken back then.