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.
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.
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!