'99 Duhart-Milon, good night sweet prince...

Last night my wife and I consumed and very much enjoyed our last bottle of 1999 Chateau Duhart-Milon. I think we drank it at its peak of balance, where some of its fresh fruit has been replaced by the last but generous song of graceful aging, before any hint of oxidized maturity. It was so graceful and wonderful. And the label from a short distance reminded me of its great, big sister, Lafite Rothschild, so that I could imagine sanguinity in my glass.

The top 1% has gotten so ferociously large in this new world that it drinks up all the good stuff. All one needs are $9 million to scratch the underbelly of the behemoth; but alas, I am not tall enough. I am among the bourgeoisie and my love of Bordeaux forces me to admit it, and start looking among the crus bourgeois for my cellar replacements. Duhart-Milon now costs over $100. I think my 1999 cost maybe $38 when it was released, maybe less. The only time I feel justified in spending more than $100 for a bottle of wine is for a special occasion. For me, the Second Growths have replaced the Firsts for that purpose. For daily drinking, I have been demoted and shut out of the classed oeuvre. Barnyard must yield to its less delicate sister. What an unpleasant way to enter my so-called golden years. There’s always the lottery, I guess.

Duhart's a weird case in terms of the pricing, given the ties with Lafite. The marketing lately has been really emphasizing the Lafite/Rothschild connections, and I'm hearing about a lot more demand for it for those reasons rather than anything to do with outright quality.

Classed growths are expensive, yes, but there's still good value out there if you look in the right places. I'm finding a number of decent value buys on the auction market. My issue with a lot of the cru bourgeois is that there's far less information on the producers/styles, a lot less consistency and aside from a few like 80s Ch. Meyney there's really nothing I'm comfortable buying.

Duhart's a weird case in terms of the pricing, given the ties with Lafite. The marketing lately has been really emphasizing the Lafite/Rothschild connections, and I'm hearing about a lot more demand for it for those reasons rather than anything to do with outright quality.

Classed growths are expensive, yes, but there's still good value out there if you look in the right places. I'm finding a number of decent value buys on the auction market. My issue with a lot of the cru bourgeois is that there's far less information on the producers/styles, a lot less consistency and aside from a few like 80s Ch. Meyney there's really nothing I'm comfortable buying.

That’s a good point, and I had considered the particular pricing condemnation arising from the consanguinity; the flip side of which, if pricing had not escalated, afforded a beneficent externality – so it is only proper and just. I guess I was only lamenting in the way that unintended recipient of a power from a grid might when the power company caught up with him. Having a day to think it through, I decided to compromise by intending a classed growth for Saturday nights, reserving Fridays to lurk among non-gated Medocian beds hoping to be vouchsafed a Swank surprise.