Your best ever wine purchase?

WINE TALK
41

3 cases '97 Truchot Charmes Chambertin @ $17.99 per bottle
2 bottles '89 DRC Grand Echezeaux @ $19.99 each
6 bottles '88 Mugnier Musigny VV @ $50 each

42

I don’t have purchase price recorerded for most of my older wines…but I know I purchased a case of 61 Latour in the early 70’s for $50-60 per bottle…Still a few left in the cellar.

43

Need to add a couple. Found a few bottles of 1988 Mugnier Musigny in a close out bin at Sam’s for about $25 in the early to mid-1990s.

Also, about five years ago, I found a 1974 Sterling Cabernet for $20.

44

What’s the story there!?

45

getting a 1997 & 1993 Montelena Estate Cabernet for $25/bottle in March 2012 was probably the best deal I’ve ever taken advantage of. being 31, i wonder what i’ll be saying in this type of thread in 20-30 years from now…

46

Probably, that you remember when you could get Musigny for less than $10,000.

47

Liquour store owner was liquidating his inventory because he was going out of business. Although most of his customers bought beer and whiskey, the guy had a stash of wine in the basement he was eager to unload.

48

85 Sassicaia in the early 90’s for around $60ea. A chap I knew needed the cash, I bought 6 bottles and drank them all.

49

As some have mentioned, if you have been buying long enough, the prices you originally paid would look ludicrously low now. I bought Mouton 1982 for $29 a bottle and Pichon Lalande 1982 for $9.75. That was normal.

I did buy Roumier Musigny 2002 for $300 a bottle at a restaurant and then traded it for $2500 of wine as I couldn’t justify opening a bottle that cost that much.

50

I think the bubble has let out a little air since the peak when I took home $5500 for the case, which meant someone actually paid 30% fees/taxes on top of that, and then possibly resold it for even more - if you can even imagine that. [wow.gif] Howard, whatever the current rate is, its far above the wines’ true value imho. I bought it to drink it, but decided not to be silly if some poor sod wanted to impress someone equally stupid with a label. [thankyou.gif]

51

A few years ago a local restaurant was changing its mode from French to American Cab, and dumped that crappy French wine.

'82 Lafite for $1590

(for a six pack)

A few others, but this may be the winner.

52

Haven’t been buying long enough to get the prices you guys had for 80s Bordeaux. However, these were some of the best deals I found in the late 90s and early 00s:

1996 Carruades $30
1997 Carruades, Forts de Latour, Pavillon Rouge Margaux $15-20
1998 Carruades, Forts de Latour, Pavillon Rouge Margaux $20-30
1999 Carruades $20

They were good for the price, but sold a bunch of the Carruades for $300 per bottle, a few years back.

And in 2010, a case of Pichon Baron 2003 at $70/bottle. Been popping one a year, and I still think that’s a great bargain.

53

It’s on the water.

54

I did this too (although they were 2003s and my cost was in the $60s… still a good deal), and it was probably the best thing I did. It wasn’t the money I value… it was that it allowed me to splurge on some excellent sauternes that will provide me with ~25 superb tasting experiences over the next 2 decades.

And for the record, as someone who wasn’t even born until the mid 80s, all your stories depress me.

55

I could mention several '82 Bdx as well. But perhaps '83 LaTache for $75 or '68 Unico for $100, or '89 and '90 d’Yquem for $90 etc.

56

82 Bordeaux on futures here as well. Other than those, a case of 1996 Chave Hermitage for $400 on discount. A bunch of stuff when I lived in Europe: 1990 Robert Weil TBA’s for $175/375ml, 1990 Dom Perignon for $45/bottle, various 1996, 97, 98 Barolo, Trimbach Clos Ste Hune 88 and 90 for $50/bottle and the 89 VT Hors Choix for $70/bottle, many other German, Alsace and Italians.

57

'05 Y de Yquem that was put in a bargain bin for $10 just this year.
'04 Biondi-Santi from that same bargain bin a few months later for $15.

Needless to say, this bargain bin shall remain unnamed.

Edit: also forgot to mention my bottle of Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc for $2000.

58

$15 for '04 Biondi-Santi. That’s a hell of a bargain bin. I’d wait outside that ‘bin’ every day…

59

My best buy was one of Alan’s top wines- 1945 Comte de Vogue Musigny V.V., but I did a bit better even than Alan on the two bottles I bought- $75 each. My employer at the time in Manhattan thought that the fills were too low (about 5.5 cm. on each bottle) and demanded a credit from his source in London on the bottles- they worked out some sort of partial credit on the wine and the patron decided he would increase his profit on the affair by ripping off his gullible GM by selling the two bottles to me for $75 each. Colors were perfect on the wines, corks pristine for their age and I was more than happy to take the bottles off of his hand. He ended up in the bottled water business eventually- I guess wine was not his natural field of expertise… two greatest red Burgundy bottles I have ever had, and also the best examples of the '45, which I have been ridiculously fortunate to taste on about a dozen occassions over the years since those two memorable wines. The intoxicating aromatics of candied red fruit, incomparable inro-infused Musigny soil, orange zest, roses and sous bois are still with me to this day…

60

1990 Ornellaia for $40