Time Machine please!
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Sure $4k is nice, but in the UK the 2008 RC was £4,850/3 which even with the poor exchange rate at that time was still under $3k.
That said, if I had a time machine, 2008 is not the vintage I would go in search of, lol.
Interesting…so we are talking about Time Machine.
I am curious. So I took time to read the printed copy of The 1999 Catalogue of the Finest and Rarest wines - under the title : VINTAGES - a publication of : Bel-Air/Twenty Twenty Wine Merchants and Martin Wine Cellars - International Wine Merchants specializing in Fine and Rare wines since 1959. The contents is 186 pages.
The red burgundy section started from page 72 to 85 and they only listed wines starting from vintage 1966 ( on page 72 ) to vintage 1919 ( on page 85 ) with the last wine which is : 1919 RC Inquire.
On page 85, it listed the following RC : 1934 Inquire; Inqir1935 Inquire; 1937 Inquire; 1940 Inquire; 1942 Inquire; 1943 Inquire; 1944 Inquire,
I called and they replied : 1934 at US $ 4950; 1935 at US $ 4500; 1937 at US $4995; 1940 at US $4750; 1942 at US $4995; 1943 at US $3950; and 1944 at US $3950.
For vintage 1959 ( on page 83 and 84 ) there are 12 wines listed. Leroy - Mazis Chambertin 1959 was at US $1495. when I called. They replied the price was changed to $US 1995.
1959 La Tache listed at US $1450. It was available.
1959 RC ( 750 ml ). Not listed.
1959 RC 1.5 L : Inquire.
1959 RC 3L : Inquire,
These things make for sad laments but the thought experiment breaks down when you consider instead what you could have bought for $4,000 in stocks or bitcoin at the same time.
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I recall being a teenager talking to my dad about Amazon and him sagely explaining that they were still operating at negative cashflow, and it was a tough call about whether they’d go the way of so many startups that over-extended…kaput. While my pops did a very nice job managing his finances he, uh, missed really goddam badly on that one.
I suspect we should all be Chang-ing it up and buying Rousseau on a daily basis. Wealth continues to increase at a rate considerably faster than the price of Burgundy, meaning demand should increasingly outpace supply on a go forward basis. That should cause a continuing increase in value of the most difficult to obtain, highest quality burgundy.
We just face the same issue we did back then…$4,000 for a single bottle of burgundy in 2010 was a fuck ton of money, just like $7,500 is or $10,000 is today. Buyer reservation remains high because of it, even if a return is likely if one holds for 20 year.
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Yeah, you could have invested in Bitcoin… or Frontier Airlines.
Trump casino bonds?
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Well that would be rather a waste of a time machine, wouldn’t it?
Not to spoil a good daydream, but Wilson-Daniels was charging a premium for direct access there. My prices for the 2008s I was offered were:
Echezeaux $388
Romanee St. Vivant $970
La Tache $1077
That was after 7.5% sales tax, to boot.
The rub, of course, is that my offering was finite, edited from the full portfolio, and small. None the less, I was happy to get what I got.
cheers,
fred
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My broker put me in XCOM over Amazon! Yup, kaput. Lost a lot of money at a time when I didn’t have a lot of discretionary cash! Unbeknownst to me my Merrill Lynch broker was prolly pumping and pushing whatever Henry Blodget told him to push. Was a painful lesson from the dot.com bust. And right now I could have been popping a nicely maturing DRC at the Highlands with my buddies, though we’d likely enjoy the 1980, or even the 1945, better. Could have had tens of thousands of bottles!
I am old and remember $600 for the 1990 DRC RC. LT was $220.
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I’ll beat you all. My father used to tell story where an accountant used to come n for breakfast to his restaurant every day. He tried to convince him to invest in a new business that he was working for. My dad dismissed the idea that people would want to go to a restaurant for a hamburger without a server taking care of them. His client was Ray Kroc of course.
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What a crock of. . . .
Oh man, you’d be gargling with DRC!
I know I know. Of course the story is always funnier with my father’s thick Greek accent.
Alan …you are young as your memory is excellent Yes the 1990 DRC RC and LT were around same prices here in Quebec, Canada. Cheers…
Just last weekend, a friend was going through some stuff in his cellar and found an old Sotheby’s auction catalog, circa early 80s. The second photo lists lot numbers in the left hand column with estimates (in £) on the right. 
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Geez, why was the '59 RC more than the '61?
Not that I would have paid that much for either.
I’d rather drink 59 reds than 61s when talking Burgundy.
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I’ll raise you one. Doctor friend was dating a woman. Her son was tinkering in the garage building something, ended up asking doc for $100,000 for a good chunk of the company he planned to start. Doc refused. No way. Kid was Lucky Palmer, later sold Oculus for billions.
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