Once upon a time, a major collector said that Dom Pérignon was one of the best and easiest investments in wine. You would buy it, and 5 years later the price would double. The price may not longer double, but in the best years it certainly goes up a good amount.
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I’m out, too, facing both price increases and actuarial realities. I like champagne older and I’m now 67. I’ll drink what I have.
i miss him. and he bought a lot of dom.
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I miss him too.
I would be curious what he would have to say here, but my guess is that he wouldn’t dip him toe in.
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Why not buy 2012 instead of 2013 if its’s cheaper. Is there that much difference between 2012 & 2013
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2012 is now out there for $210 at best. More like $225/$230.
So price is basically the same.
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ha! only 20 6-packs. pinky toe.
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Ha! That wasn’t what I meant, more his opinion.
And you missed a zero there 
haha. true. but on the vintage, meant to be excellent no? (putting price aside)
Honestly, you guys are bringing tears (mostly of sadness) to my eyes. Thought about him a lot this week and still miss his friendship immensely.
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I really don’t have much context for how Dom turned out in 2013. I know that most of the Growers I’ve had in 2013 were dynamite. PP Chetillons was outstanding, and I wish I had bought more.
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Same, Brad. He and I share a birthday and we’d always joke it’s the worst day of the year (it is)
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Ray spoke in # of pallets, not cases.
At the first high-end dinner my wife and I went to we were seated next to him, he told us he had just bought a pallet of 02 Krug. Realized then that there was a whole different ballgame of wine collecting we had no idea about…
And yet, somehow, when Ray said things like that, it did not sound like bragging, which it so often does, even when talking about much smaller quantities.
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Yup…definitely not a brag. More of a suggestion that perhaps you should do the same (in retrospect of course correct!).
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Pitty the fool that bought a palate of 2011 CdC for flipping. 
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I know this is tough for Brad as he knew Ray better than any of us here. I also think it is only fitting that a thread about DP has turned into a thread about Ray as it was '64 DP that turned him on to Champagne.
I consider myself very lucky to have known Ray. I learned so much about Champagne from him and was a frequent recipient of his generosity. He is the reason I have a cellar full of Champagne. Every time I go down there to grab a bottle I am reminded of him because I have 6-packs of '08 DP with his name on it as I tagged along on his multi-pallet purchase of that vintage. He poured me my 1st glass of aged Champagne. It was a '73 DP at an auction and I traded him for a glass of '96 Billecart CSH. He said mine was nice, but his was better. Of course he was right. A few years later he brought a bottle a '64 DP to a dinner we both attended at Blue Hill with Peter Gago from Grange. He said it was one of the best bottles he ever had and it was amazing.
Ray was the best when it came to organizing wine dinners. He knew how to put the right people together with the right wines and the right food and service. I always walked away from a Ray dinner feeling like everything was just perfect.
Over the years, I have said no to a lot of events, but never when I got the call from Ray. He would invite folks to the Saturday auctions at Marea, which worked good for me as I could get in and out of the city easy on a Saturday and be home in time for dinner. Often times it was just the 2 of us and it was a non-stop laugh fest. He was one of those people that could make me laugh so hard that I had tears in my eyes.
The last 3 months of 2019 were great, thanks to Ray. He had organized a dinner at Crown Shy in October, we went to an auction together in November where he brought bottles of '61 and '64 Taittinger CdC, and he did a 70’s Champagne retrospective at Atera in December. That was another night of laughing till I cried. He told me something that night that only Ray could say which was “I have decided I need to drink more of my bottles from the 70’s as they are starting to mature.” That unfortunately was the last time I saw Ray.
Ray really was a special person and there will never be another like him.
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yeah. That person must have a terrible pallet.
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