How Much Would You Pay For a Bottle of Wine?
By Steve Horncastle

So, how much can a bottle of wine be worth? And why do some collectors pay ridiculous amounts of money for something which will never be used for it's intended purpose?

At the time of writing, the current world record price for a single bottle of white wine stands at £105,000. That's £20,000 a glass, or if you drink it like I do, £50,000. It's a 1787 Chateau Lafite, just in case you're wondering. The question is, why? Why would someone pay so much for a bottle of liquid which will no doubt be shown off to a few select friends and then locked away in a safe for however many years until it's sold on again. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going to take the moral high ground and pontificate about how the money could be better spent on orphans or curing the sick. After all, people pay far more for works of art. But that's exactly what they are. Works of art, to be displayed, marvelled over and enjoyed, ie used for the purpose the artist intended. As far as I'm aware whoever made that bottle of wine probably intended for it to be enjoyed as a fine drink, and surely if the bottle is never going to be opened it may as well contain water. In fact who can ever be really sure what it contains unless it's actually drank? It's not like an oil painting by an 'Old Master' that can be authenticated by an expert if it can never leave the bottle.

To illustrate my point I'd like to mention an incident at a London restaurant earlier this year. A party of diners ordered a 1961 vintage priced £18,000, but upon delivery to the table the rich customer refused to accept the bottle, saying he believed it was fake as the cork wasn't stamped with the standard providence mark which would prove where and when it was made. The restaurant in question contacted an expert on that particular wine to see if it was genuine or if they themselves had been the victims of fraud, but the expert is quoted as saying that 'it is impossible to confirm 100 per cent the authenticity of a wine pre-1964'. So the customer didn't know, the restaurant didn't know and, indeed, the expert didn't know. To cap the story off nicely, the restaurant owner opened the bottle and found it was off anyway!

I don't know about you but I'm going to stick to a nice Californian Red from a well known supermarket for £2.88 a bottle.

Visit my blog for more wine-related ramblings at http://fineforwine.blogspot.com/

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