12 of the World's Most Expensive Wines

Have any of these in your cellar?

From the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/most-expensive-wine_n_1084988.html

Have any of these in your cellar?

From the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/most-expensive-wine_n_1084988.html

Not even if I hit the lottery!

If I did, I wouldn't be able to afford a house to have a cellar in. Sheesh.

Even for a fluff piece, the fact checking was a bit... suspect. Re the '45 DRC: "Produced at the end of WW II and before the outbreak of phylloxera" HUH???

Mark Lipton

[James Roscoe]

Even for a fluff piece, the fact checking was a bit... suspect. Re the '45 DRC: "Produced at the end of WW II and before the outbreak of phylloxera" HUH???

Mark Lipton

I wondered about that. Remember it was in the Huffington Post AKA the Fox News of the Left. Journalism has sunk to new lows in this country.

Even for a fluff piece, the fact checking was a bit... suspect. Re the '45 DRC: "Produced at the end of WW II and before the outbreak of phylloxera" HUH???

Mark Lipton

I wondered about that. Remember it was in the Huffington Post AKA the Fox News of the Left. Journalism has sunk to new lows in this country.

To be accurate, HuffPost is more of a news aggregation site, so the editorial responsibility may lie elsewhere.

Mark Lipton

poor editing, as we all know the phylloxera outbreak started in the 19th century, but I think point is the '45 is the last pied de franc vintage of R-C.

poor editing, as we all know the phylloxera outbreak started in the 20th century, but I think point is the '45 is the last pied de franc vintage of R-C.

I'm quoting you in full, Dale, just to rub your nose in the typo. Otherwise, we're in total agreement.

Mark Lipton

what typo, who me edit?

OT: Years ago, in old WLDG with Eric S's software, which I thought was really well done, my one complaint was that there was no edit notification. There was one person in particular who would edit posts to make it look like responders were idiots. I like Robin's current system- edit notitication is after a response.

poor editing, as we all know the phylloxera outbreak started in the 19th century, but I think point is the '45 is the last pied de franc vintage of R-C.

Exactly. A google threw up this page, which uses the same phrase:
http://www.luxurylaunches.com/auctions/ ... uction.php
It links to a L'Express webpage as the source, and the source gets it right.

poor editing, as we all know the phylloxera outbreak started in the 19th century, but I think point is the '45 is the last pied de franc vintage of R-C.

That's correct, I believe. I recall one of my old wine books saying that they were unable to get the necessary chemicals to protect their ungrafted vines during the war. I believe that the next RC vintage was 1952. The grafted vines must have then been rather young for the production of quality wine .

BTW that article has introduced me (on the screen, unfortunately not in the glass) to an unfamiliar trophy wine, Royal DeMaria.

It would be interesting to have Francois Adouze weigh in on this topic. I would guess that he has tasted at least a few wines from this list.

Royal Demaria are in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada. They have an 'interesting' approach to pricing: they increase the price of each wine they make with the fewer bottles they have. That is, the more they sell, the more the prices are increased. So if they make 100 cases of one wine, and sell it for $70/bottle originally, by the time they have 1 case left, they've raised the price to whatever they feel like ($20,000 or more).

They are also interesting in the sense that they only make icewine. They make icewine from every variety imaginable, from the 'normal' vidal and riesling to malbec, pinot noir, gamay, cabernet sauvignon, etc. Frankly, I've never been a big fan of their wines, especially as they offer lousy QPR, even at release prices. And I personally can't support such a crass pricing model.

Icewine from malbec?

Hmmmm.