Grapevine
It’s the time of year for gift-giving. Some of us are focused on specific gifts to match the specific likes, even passions, of someone we wish to acknowledge. In a number of cases this focus is on wine, whether for a particular business client or for a special relative or friend.
And we tend to spend a bit more on these gifts during the holiday season than at other times of the year.
If you’re a bit baffled by the vast wine choices in the oenophile cosmos, look no further. I have the perfect gift recommendation for any level of wine consumer, from novice to high-end collector. Alas, the availability of this wine is severely limited. A small amount is produced each year and little is available in the retail market. A portion of this wine is offered for sale at public auctions, many years (even decades) after its initial release. Even if “cost is no object” in your budget, you may have a difficult time finding and purchasing this wine.
The wine? Domaine de la Romanée Conti (DRC). The vintage? Any vintage available in the marketplace. The price? The value a willing buyer and a willing seller arrive at. The buzz over owning one of these bottles? Priceless?
Be careful though. As with any rare commodity (a Picasso or Warhol, the first Bible printed in the American colonies), black market merchandise and even counterfeits abound.
For those interested, I present several pointers when purchasing DRC or any scarce, rare, or one-of-a-kind objet d’art (or vin):
1. Price. Scarcity drives up prices. It is generally perceived that wines from the Bordeaux region of France command the highest prices, in particular Petrus. However, the preferences of collectors (old-line and the new aristocrats in China) are wines from the Burgundy region of France, in particular DRC. The most recent vintage available of Petrus, the 2010, commands per-bottle prices over $3,500.
DRC has become the favored “objet d’art” (or vin in this case) of wine connoisseurs. Walk into a (very) high-end wine shop, plunk down your no-limit credit card and be prepared to spend over $15,000 for a bottle of 2010. As for older vintages, there seems to be quite a few willing buyers. At a recent auction held in Hong Kong, a case of 1978 DRC sold for $476,280, equivalent to $39,700 per bottle and $7,800 per glass. You say that special person is not worth those celestial prices? What’s that, you say you can’t afford those prices? That makes two of us.
2. Provenance. Even for those few who hold that special person in high regard – and just won the lottery (either the $1 variety or the Wall Street bonus variety) – there is no certainty that your purchase is genuine. The DRC wine market is rife with shady characters lying in wait for enthusiastic buyers. Last year I reported that Rudy Kurniawan, a prominent wine collector, was arrested on counterfeit charges. He affixed fraudulent DRC labels to bottles filled with unidentified cheap wine and sold them in the high-end wine markets.
Just last month, European police, informed of counterfeit DRC wines being sold in the private (black) market, conducted a sweep in 10 countries, raiding 20 homes and companies. Over $2.7 million in fraudulent profit is believed to have been realized.
3. Blackmail. Owners of the winery producing the most expensive wine in the world have been targets of nefarious blackmailers. In 2010, a father and son attempted to extort $1.4 million from the owners of DRC, threatening to destroy their vineyard. After much anguish, the owners contacted the authorities, who intervened and subsequently arrested the culprits.
Fear not if you are unable to find or afford the special gift for that someone special this year. There’s always time and the opportunity for next year–or for you to campaign for special person status yourself with the rich and famous in your social circle.
Nick Antonaccio is a 35-year Pleasantville resident. For over 15 years he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine.
