Do you flip Dom, do you own a restaurant or will you personally consume 40 cases of 2008? I can’t fathom going through 480 bottles of any single wine or champagne.
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I don’t flip it although I don’t rule it out in the future. We’ve been drinking through it not slowly, probably at least a bottle a month but I can foresee drinking lots while entertaining.
6 pack cases so 240 but still quite a bit of one wine. Reminds me of Rob Rosania who bought 500 6 packs of 96 Salon.
I actually do have >40 12 pack cases of the 08 Dom with substantial but less amounts of the 08, 12 and 13 Cristal and Krug 164 and 168. I feel like well stored too vintage grand marque champagne is a decent place to keep some “liquid” assets
Got some for 110 GBP per bottle in the UK.
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Yeah I managed to get confirmed for 4x6 total. Most of my contacts offered me none.
My boyfriend wants a bottle of the 2012 Dom for Christmas dinner. Reading all this from all of you guys I was inclined to get two at least.
Then I read that around 300 workers went on strike at Moët & Chandon headquarters because their boss, who recently became the richest man in the world, won’t pay them the tax-free annual bonus of €1000 due to employees whose pay is less than three times the minimum wage.
This would cost Arnault €300K. It makes me sick that their pay is so low and yet we’re here discussing buying $200 bottles of wine (or $125 if you’re friends with Michael’s suppliers) to line the pockets of the same guy that refuses to pay them. From drug dealers to Zoomer influencers to wine geeks, Arnault seems to have something overpriced to sell to everyone.
That just doesn’t sound like Christmas to me.
(Does this count as politics for WB rules? I hope not because it’s directly related to a wine-buying decision.)
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FWIW the article only notes that ~300 went on strike, not that only 300 workers were owed that bonus. So the total bonus payment is likely much higher than €300k. Doesn’t make this any less of a dick move on Moet & Chandon part.
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That’s very true Rodrigo.
As per Wikipedia, Moët & Chandon had 1,715 employees in 2011. Let’s say they’ve grown to 2,000. Even if he was paying all of them less than 3x minimum wage (which would be an even bigger scandal in and of itself), the bonus would only cost him €2M.
As per the latest earnings call, “Champagne and Wines revenue was €1.1 billion, an increase of 58% on an organic basis versus H1 2020” contributing a whopping “€319 million in profit from recurring operations” in just the first half of this year, with “Champagne volumes increas[ing] 57% versus the first half of last year, reflecting strong in demand in Europe and the U.S.”
Presuming an equally strong second half (and it’ll probably be much stronger), the workers, at most, want less than a third of one percent of that for their legally mandated bonus.
So yeah, as you say, a dick move any way you slice it.
Interesting; thanks for posting the link, Guillermo. I was unable to find any other mention of this in the press, in any language. I am not questioning WS’s reporting, but a single report, drawn entirely from a statement from one of the combatants, leaves me wanting to know more.
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Search “Moet et Chandon” or LVMH and “prime Macron” and you’ll stumble on quite a few French articles. On balance most of them seem to be sourcing from AFP. It appears LVMH hasn’t put out statements with much details regarding this incident or their decisions, which is par for the course for most large companies.
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Apparently the strike has been postponed because management committed to paying a bonus of unspecified amount in early 2022. Workers say they’ll strike again in November if management tries to go below €800. I’m not sure that makes me feel any better.
More here:
Time for Wine Berserkers to demand that LVMH turn over their books for audit? 
The '08 DP was released at 690 GBP which was about $143 US. You could have bought all you wanted, no allocation. The '12 was just released at 660 GBP which is about $152 US at current FX. The difference is that '12 is on allocation so you might be able to get a few 6-packs at that price. I would not be surprised to see the next tranche released at 750 GBP. As a comparison, '08 Comtes was also released on allocation. First tranche was 535 GBP/6 ($115 US) and then second tranche was 670 GBP/6 ($150 US). The last price I saw was over 800 GBP/6. I think this is the new model for great bottles of Champagne.
As long as we call it the Comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces Sweet Revenge Solidarity Audit, I’m down.
Timing is everything. I have all capital tied up in bringing in another container of sake while there is still inventory left of the rare library releases. The restaurants are clamoring for it.
Guess I’ll sit out the 2012 DP, at least for a while
I agree. I think it’s unlikely that prices will drop after second tranche and wide availability. If anything prices will go up. 08 Comtes proved that. They released at a huge premium to previous releases and after some initial sticker shock, the price stuck and people are still paying $200 today. I think it’s more likely to see $200 range for 12 DP also than see prices drop to $125 or less.
Certainly that was my logic when I picked up what I could from first tranche. Only time will tell.
Not sure where you’re getting that 690 figure from for the 08 release. I paid £600/6 IB.
Dan,
I went back and checked my emails and the release price was 600 GBP/6 and that was on allocation. I was told it sold out in 30 minutes. You did really good! The next price I saw was the 690 GPB.
I got 10 cases at £600 as late as 2019. It was widely available.