Damn straight! And happily so, too — I would happily set a personal Spend record on that wine. Still eternally grateful for your generosity in mailing me a generous decant off your bottle, and equally happy you did the same for fellow sherry lover, @Jay_Miller . 
According to today’s US dollar value and Cellartracker, the most I paid for a bottle of wine is 322 USD, for a 2021 Roumier Chambolle Musigny.
The most valuable bottle I have is a bottle of 2019 Hubert Lamy Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Derrière Chez Edouard Cuvée Haute Densité, which I paid 217$ for.
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Of course, if I could go back and buy them all at the sticker price of 1x9.99.
At the time it was our most expensive purchase.
…and to your point of variability, we have zero expectation. At this point just popping the cork will be victory in the big picture.
I think the three of us (wife, bottle, me) are in a perpetual Mexican standoff with this bottle.
We are in a relationship at this point.
Don’t get into a relationship with your bottles.
Drink them!
I am also living through this, I have a bottle each of '96 Salon, Krug, and Dom Perignon that I have set aside of a comparative tasting with a good friend. The problem is making our schedules sink up. Simply going to have to make the time to do so.
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I wouldn’t wait too much longer on the Dom.
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If I only had one bottle of each I wouldn’t drink them together. They are such different styles and in such different evolution paths. DP is getting long in the tooth, Krug is right in the zone and many Salon are still tight and too young. 2 are bound to disappoint compared to the one you prefer when they might have shown fine alone.
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That is very fair, but also kind of the point of wanting to do the side by side by side. Now I may have to sit on them longer while I decide what to do 
Yeah that’s definitely the hard part, figuring out when to drink stuff that is at different stages in evolution. For champagnes mags are much preferred bc they last much longer. I have mags of all the 02s (salon, Cristal, Krug, Dom) guessing maybe 2036 for those 4.
Really?
Always?
What if you want to drink it, instead of holding it?
I haven’t found it’s linear i.e. mags age 2x slower. I found that they get to peak a little bit later, but they stay fresher so much longer. Pretty much always preferred for the most part.
Thank you. I really appreciate the message. I certainly agree with you, but I think some of my reservations are due to being relatively new (3–4 years) to wine. I wouldn’t want to “waste” the experience before being able to fully appreciate what is in the bottle.
I recently joined the WB forum and am looking forward to learning more. Cheers!
I think you can always appreciate what’s in a bottle, even if you know next to nothing about wine, which obviously wouldn’t apply to you at 3 or 4 years of experience. But then again, you may not appreciate what’s in this bottle for other reasons. I know people who don’t like Krug because they find it too oxidative. I also know other people who love Krug, but highly dislike the 06.
Those are things that are much more valuable to find out early on in your journey. I would recommend drinking everything you can get your hands on early to figure out what you like and what you don’t like, so that you can focus on collecting the former and not wasting your money on the latter.
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Sometimes they aren’t ready as often.
I 100% subscribe to this theory - smoke em if you got em. HOWEVER it does become challenging if your inventory of expensive wines skews younger.
I’ve made a few single bottle (mostly on Commerce Corner or other informal sales like that) purchases of First Growths in the $400s.
I don’t think I’ve ever spent $500 but maybe I did once or twice in my life.
Last fall I paid $175 for a Guigal Chateau d’Ampuis, to celebrate a special life event. Tasted great. May be more pricey than one should pay for that region, but I don’t regret it.
The clear winner for me was an 82 Mouton I had in 2022 for my 40th; I think I paid, what, $800 for that? Worth it for the occasion more so than for the wine itself.
Second most was a Hundred Acre Kayli Morgan, to see what the fuss was about. I don’t see it.
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How many dollars per acre?
How many dollars per acre?
$7 per acre, if I remember right. What was I even thinking.
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During the pandemic I bought DRC and Rousseau from a high end restaurant that was forced into only serving take out at a price that was a win for both of us. They could take their allocations and not bleed cash during a trying time.