2013 Dominus @259...

Check your local Bevmo.
Seems like this is a no brainer wine to have in the cellar right?

Might as well buy 91/94 at that price

Yeah, easy pass.

At half that price… it still wouldn’t be a no-brainer

I bought some at $250. Seemed like a no brainer to me.

Depends on your definition of “no-brainer”

I could pull the trigger at $130/btl.

Epic pass
…the 2006 I remember Maybe considering at $109

Wow, that is big money for that wine. I bought the 2010 for $130, and that is in Canadian dollars!!

That’s what happens when it’s a triple 100 point wine.

I was having a conversation with my Dad on Tuesday night about just this wine. We used to have Dominus with regularity, as it was one of my favorite Napa producers. I’ve not bought a bottle since the 2008 vintage. It’s gone from $75 to $250 in like 8 or 9 vintages. It’s one of the examples I used when discussing why I’m buying more Oregon and Spanish wines, and beer and good liquor. I think between my wife and I we fall very squarely into that “high income earner” area and yet I just can’t afford to be buying cases of wine at that price. That used to be what I would consider spending on a really wonderful aged second growth.

Love Dominus but as others have said, for that level you can buy a LOT of stuff that you can drink NOW…

Epic pass. I stopped at 2008 vintage.

Too many killer, mature wines, French and Cali alike, and that price and much less.

If you must have it, buy the 2013 Napanook.

Even that is pushing 60 bucks here, maybe cheaper online. $89.00 for Forman is starting to look like a bargain.
Goodbye Larkmead
Goodbye Dominus

As a foreigner, I’m a bit intrigued. If this indeed got “300 points” from 3 critics, and my understanding is many other high end US wines go for much more than $250, why do people think this price is too steep? Naively, I have the impression many on this board routinely spend that sort of money on the various mailing list favourites. Do people just think the critics are wrong, or is the wine just not rare enough to warrant such “high” prices?

I think those other wines are way too expensive too. I have only paid that much or more for a wine a couple of times, for 1st growths or their equivalent with age. And with Ridge Monte Bello selling for ~$100, I can get “1st growth” quality CA cab for a great deal less.

Pretty amazing. Way out of my league, having never paid more than $100 for a bottle of wine. That, and I still have lots of Dominus (obviously older) that I bought back in the early/mid 90’s for less than $65. My last taste was a 91 in 2012 that was still on the upswing. But I am sad that I’ll never buy it again.

The thing is, there are now tons of 100 point wines, and even a fair number of multi-critic 100 point wines from Napa. Dominus is not and has never been a cult producer or a tiny lot producer. It’s a bordeaux blend from Napa with a nice pedigree and consistent quality. In my opinion, it also changed its still to a richer fruit profile, which seems to have increased its scores since 2007. Now, is a 100 point wine automatically worth $259? It was for a while, but no longer. Many wines from 2009 and 2010 in Bordeaux seemed to snag the 100 points but not $260 price tag. Perhaps that’s a poor memory, but I don’t think so. The result is a supply and demand issue that shouldn’t warrant the price. You’re also looking at a board and especially within the thread some members here that just don’t really care if a wine is a 99 or a 97 or a 100. So three critics’ scores at 100 don’t necessarily mean much, and most of us aren’t pursuing the wines to sell again later or to show our pals our trophies.

There is an abundance of ultra-high quality Napa cab from recent vintages. Perhaps that’s not the case for same quality level bordeaux in older vintages, and take on costs of age, I’d rather spend my money there.

+1

Not being a pigeon warrants no regrets.