Potential Good News for Bordeaux Prices

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-21/whisky-hunters-scour-globe-for-rare-malts-as-wine-sours.html

Not likely to make much affect on Bdx prices. Numbers are still a tiny fraction. And auction market is dwarfed by current release.
Surprised by no mention of bourbon, the most frenzied flipping/searching I see is for PappyVW, but guess not at auction
David W is a friend, but 70 lots is a tiny fraction of that sale, and not the pricier lots

Well, looking at it in broader terms than just Bordeaux & Single Malts, I think that the surge in the popularity of liquors and cocktails is having and will continue to have an increasing impact on wine prices generally. Personally, over the last 10 years my wine consumption has decreased steadily as the diversity in liquors, liqueurs, bitters, and esoteric cocktail ingredients has exploded. Hey, these things are very varied, very tasty, and lend themselves to lots of fun personal experimentation. Additionally, you can mix up an interesting cocktail, that perhaps you've just invented, sit back and enjoy it, and never have to worry about whether you should really have let it breath for 5 or 6 hours. ...and of course, even the good stuff lasts for more than an evening!

Just look at recent threads on WLDG, 25 posts for "Wine Focus for August", 24 posts for "Unexpurgated History of the Martini", and that on a wine forum. ...or you could look at the latest edition of the WINE Enthusiast with a six page spread on "The World's Easiest Cocktails" showcasing 12 different libations, a four page spread on "The New Bloody Mary" featuring 5 nouveau Mary's plus technique tips, a page on "Baijiu, An Introduction to the world's most popular drink you've never heard of", and a page directing you to a web address that will take you to the place where you will learn "how to set up a 23-ingredient bubble station so you can easily mix sweet and savory COCKTAILS". All this in the "WINE" Enthusiast.

Seems there may well be some fine wine bargains in our futures.

For me, it would be really good news if the punters and status hunters were migrating their focus onto limited edition whiskies and new cocktails, thus leaving fine wine to those who appreciate it and want to drink it. However, I see no sign of it on this side of the Atlantic, except possibly in cosmopolitan London where I am now out of touch. I remain sceptical, though, that the attention of such people will be durably diverted from trophy wines.

Does anyone here, or indeed anywhere, drink these super-deluxe limited edition whiskies? How about some Whisky TNs?

For me, it would be really good news if the punters and status hunters were migrating their focus onto limited edition whiskies and new cocktails, thus leaving fine wine to those who appreciate it and want to drink it. However, I see no sign of it on this side of the Atlantic, except possibly in cosmopolitan London where I am now out of touch. I remain sceptical, though, that the attention of such people will be durably diverted from trophy wines.

Does anyone here, or indeed anywhere, drink these super-deluxe limited edition whiskies? How about some Whisky TNs?

Well yes Tim, I suppose if cocktail appreciation were to be heavily concentrated among wine "punters and status hunters" it would be cause for celebration. As for myself and those with whom I enjoy interesting and well made liquors, liqeuers, and cocktails, we are neither punters nor status hunters, and we still very much appreciate wine and want to drink it. Nonetheless, our attention has indeed been "diverted" to some extent. We enjoy both wine and these lovelies, simply a matter of an expanding universe of enjoyable things to imbibe.

As for "super-deluxe limited edition whiskies", we don't partake. These days, for the most part, they just don't deliver value for the money and are probably usually enjoyed by those with lots of disposable income, and perhaps are fair number of "punters and status hunters".