Interesting you mention Lynch Bages. I recently put much of my high priced Bordeaux from the vintages between 1982 and 1990 up for sale through a broker, and one of the first wines that completely sold out was 1989 Lynch Bages - at a price comparable to many first growths. I couldn't believe it - I sold out my Lynch Bages faster and at a significantly higher price than my Leoville Las Cases - which is in NO WAY supported by either the quality of the wine, the Parker scores, or what I paid for them back in the day. Yes, all to Chinese buyers.

Yes indeed

Though I will say mature Lynch Bages has traded at a high premium long, long before the Chinese came barging in. When I first got into wine speculatively in the early 2000s I ended up buying Lynch Bages because after 10 years it priced more like a super-second than a fifth. And the 1989 is a 99+ Parker score compared to the 91 rated Las Cases (which personally I have always found overpriced versus the likes of Ducru or even Gruaud in St Julien - which happens to be my absolutely favorite wine region). Though I am surprised you got more than you did for first growths (the RP100 Haut Brion 89 looks like it trades around 4x the price of 99+ Lynch Bages)

Anyway I am sure that was a good trade for you ^

Actually, Haut Brion and La Mission Haut Brion were the exceptions. I cleared $875 a bottle on the La Mission, and $1200 on the Haut Brion. The Lynch got $375, most other first growths got in in mid-high $400s And the Leoville got only around $225.

BTW, I disagree with you about Leoville Las Cases - IMHO, it's consistently the best of the super 2nd growths (along with Ducru) - but it's also the largest production, so supply vs. demand is affected. Personal taste, I guess, but I find the Lynch Bages to be a less nuanced wine.

In 1992, I paid $22 for the Lynch, and $70 for the Haut Brion

:oI am embarrassed to post my cellar list here. Lots of rare, great and extremely expensive wines being listed here. I like drinking wine every evening and try to keep each bottle price less than $40 (with a few rare exceptions), and usually less than $30. Having said that, I've concluded I like oaky wines and usually ones that have the words 'smokey', 'leathery', 'earthy' in them and 'blueberries' listed in the fruity tastes. Like wines that are more full bodied. Cabernet, Nebbiolo and certain types on Sangiovese and Pinot Noirs are varietals I like, but I don't know enough to identify other types to hone down on what works best for me by just looking at bottles in a shop (I have tried to read up on regions/years but never manage to keep them in my mind, especially since normally avoidable wineries seem to produce classics in some years, etc. - too many things to remember). So instead, I've teamed up with the awesome Erick Urbina of Pearson's wine in Washington DC - he's been building combination cases for me once in 2 months. On my end, I catalog every wine using Vivino Pro and rate the tastes, and then let Erick know what I liked/did not like and he modifies my next combination case. So far so good.

Yep, I've not yet commented on what my top wines are, because they'd likely be your worst :D

not at all. while the high end bordeaux stuff is fabulous, on a daily basis it's more in the $10-20 range. i find that is where you get the best bang for your buck. sure it's fun to pull out some high end stuff christmas time and new years and what-not but with my kind of habit i need quaffing material :)

that is amazing what you paid in 92. the lynch is definitely pre-parker affect!

i guess it's down to taste, i've always found the las cases' i've tried to be too closed and inaccessible. ducru is sex on legs, and i've found gruaud always pleasant.

out of curiosity who did you sell through? i sold a bunch of 2000s last year through farr. they were talking their book down during the initial process but actually ended up getting great prices

You may want to take a look at www.wineberserkers.com It's like Flyertalk, but the discussion is about wine. When I say it's like Flyertalk, it means there are board personalities there too. ;) :D

My motto: Read up, drink up. They (we) have offlines that are like Flyertak DOs. It's fun going to a wine themed dinner and drinking some serious juice.

Dan

When I bought most of those Bordeaux 20-25 years ago, I was typically paying $20-40 a bottle. It's only because of the wine boom in China that the stuff has typically gone up ten-fold in value - while inflation has probably gone up only 3x during the same timeframe. And that's why I've been selling the stuff. 99% of the stuff I actually drink is stuff I still pay under $40 a bottle, with a big slug of it being in the $15-20 range.

Quite a bit of what I actually drink nowadays is Argentine Malbecs and Chilean cabs, and Aussie Shiraz and California Zinfandels that today costs under $20. The more I've tasted, the more I've come to be comfortable with my own tastes rather than what wine-writers tell me I should like best.

BTW, the broker I've been using is OWCwines in San Diego.

having auctioned off my last 85 sassicaia, I would think my top wine is probably a 2005 Romanee Conti Echezeaux...some SQN's and other odd california stuff, but this is probably one of the gems...

Interestingly, I started my adventure at this range, but I found too many misses compared to hits and gave up - when I moved to the 15-30 range, I found many good wines and lesser misses.


Great link, Dan thanks! I was looking for this sort a a forum. What is a "DO"?

Now that's a great perspective - I never thought of preserving my collection for that many years. Since you mentioned Argentina, I thought I'd mention that one of my top wines in the "under $10" category is actually the Alamos Red Blend

beserkers is the best...having been banned by squires. I agree, I drink it all and I know what I like and know what I don't like and it does not matter what it cost. If it sucks, it sucks...

Yeah I am not going to disagree with that. In the 10-15 it can be a bit hit and miss. 15-30 is a good sweet spot to be in. 30-100 puts you in a place where you can find excellent wine and everything above that is really diminishing returns (that $600 Lafite really is NOT 12 times better than the $50 Napa blend)

I do shop mostly at Total Wine and their prices are truly fantastic though, so their 10-15 is frankly more like 15-20 at your average store.

Too bad you gave me the link few days ago... did too much reading there ^
But got good advice and insights for my NY storage problem. Final interim conclusion- once I exceed 10 cases, there are good price/terms solutions in the New York area. below that, I'd be better off storing with the current solutions (at the purchasing store, at home, or drink :D)

A Flyertalk DO is a gathering of 12 or more Flyertalkers., usually at a dinner (locally or somewhere far away). An Offline is a gathering of people that enjoy wine. Those folks are like us. Knowledgeable, but a little wacky. ;)
Information on get togethers are in the Community forum. There's at least 1 WineDo every June in NYC. Here's the thread from this past June. This event is open to everyone. The wines we drink are more than acceptable. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...-post-brt.html

Mark Squires is not a nice person. :mad:

dh

Faust Cab
 

I love my 2008 FAUST Cabaranet Savignon!

On the subject of Wine Boards..... maybe Ive misunderstood, but is one of the above posts supposed to say that Squires is on Wine Beserkers..? I thought that Beserkers was created to take in the folks that were forced (or chose to) exile from ERobert Parker....?????

I'd prefer it if if cost under $25 a bottle. Then I would consider it to be a Faustian bargain :D

a) it's not that good, and

b) it's more than $2 a bottle as well. They raised the price earlier this year.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/25/...-a-price-hike/

I remember a while back we bought a case of Pacific Peak from total wine for a party at I think $2.38 a bottle. It was so bad, we poured 7 bottles of it down the drain. Since then, I've never dipped below $10 unless it was on a specific recommendation

I don't want to sound like a wine snob.... but, I think saying that this stuff is not that good is being very very, very, diplomatic.

I don't dare smell the stuff... :eek: :eek:

Don't knock it until you've tried it.

My 5 litre cask of Gabutti Malbec costs about the same and it's very drinkable. :D
Then again it's Argentine.

I've got just a couple of bottles left of each of Lynch Bages 82, Leoville LasCases 82 and Mouton 81. Of the three, the Lynch Bages is my favourite, by a considerable margin. However, I got more enjoyment per $ out of a 3litre box of Italian Sangiovese I bought last summer from K&L for $18 and drank with my kids and their friends on a lovely hot summer's evening.....

Gaucho - Had the 64 Latour and a 90 Mouton Rothschild last night after starting with my new favourite Riesling 2012 Long Shadows Poet's Leap.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8...0/IMAG0376.jpg

1964 Grand Vin De Chateau Latour, Pauillac - Wow ^ shocked honestly, cork was in excellent shape still very solid with excellent seal in the neck. Red ~90% of the way up the cork, fill still above shoulder. Strained and decanted, heavy sediment - at least 1" wide along the whole side it was laying on. Initial strong nose of blackcurrant, honey, dark cherry and some purple fruit, very deep red with rusty rim in the glass. Initial taste ~15 mins in was a bit tight, some black tea and quite a bit of fruit left. After another hour or so it really came into it's own, slight leather, musty damp forest floor, still some black tea, cedar cigar box but still with some surprisingly youthful fruit. Medium body with soft, silky tannins.

Without question one of the best wines I've had but in it's own way - naturally can't compare a 50 year old Bordeaux to a great Aussie Shiraz - but still excellent. Best of the lot of old Bordeauxs that we picked up.

1990 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac - 4th of 5 bottles we had of this vintage. Cork a bit soft and crumbly but still well sealed fill above shoulder, looked essentially full. Probably 2nd best of the bottles opened so far - no real discernible differences in the bottles but a definite difference in the quality. Again strained and decanted for about 45 minutes, slight sediment. Initial stank wet, green barnyard that lifted to be very green, some minerality, with dust and tobacco taking over. Gorgeous colour, much more lively and young that the Latour, as expected, deep red to purple. A bit thin, all the bottles we've opened from this lot has been lighter than I'd like but this one felt like it was at nearing the end of it's life - some plum, blackcurrant, blueberry type fruit left but fading away to tobacco, cedar and some sorts of soft underlying spices but still quite green. Tasty, typical Bordeaux with some years under its belt, a good bottle but outshined by its company.

All my top wines have been drank already. But I really like Ruffino Chiantis.

Thank you for sharing your tasting notes..... ^ ^ ^

Please let me know if you are ever down in EZE, we need to meet up and drink some wine.... Have you had a chance to taste some of the top quality Malbecs and Malbec blends from this neck of the woods...?

Cheers from EZE,
Gaucho100K

I just sold two bottles of Burgundy through my broker to a Chinese buyer for ridiculous prices:

A 1990 J.F Mugnier Musigny that I bought directly from the domaine in France for around $120 in 1993 sold for $975,

And an Henri Jayer Nuits Meurgers from the mediocre 1986 vintage, that I had bought at auction for under $100 around 20 years ago sold for $1600.

Apparently, Jayer's wines have such a cult following, and he being dead and thus not producing any more, that even lousy years are selling for well into 4 digit prices that put DRC wines to shame.

Some wines added up (Gaucho100K, the '07 Bodega Chacra Pinot Noir Cincuenta y Cinco was very nice), and now I need to space them out

If you liked the Cincuenta y Cinco, wait until your try the Treinta y Dos..... ^

Sure will!

Now I have a 'first world problem'- which wine(s) should I bring from storage for the holiday season? (real first world problem). Already made a decision that we will try the 1970 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou this season. For the rest, I am not sure...

I organized a tasting of 18 top malbecs for a group of Hong Kong based "whinos" yesterday at a high end dead cow place.... it was a very long evening with a lot of very good Malbec. I created three different categories, according to the price of the bottles. Here are the winners....

Value Malbecs
Gold Medal - Escorihuela Gascon Pequenias Producciones Malbec
Silver Medal - Rutini Coleccion Malbec
Bronze Medal - Jorge Catena Zapata Ricominciare Altisimo Malbec

Premium Malbecs
Gold Medal - Catena Zapata Angelica Zapata Malbec Alta
Silver Medal - Matilde Lamadrid Single Vineyard Malbec
Bronze Medal (tie) - Rutini Antologia XXXI and Mendel Finca Remota SV Malbec

High End / Cult Malbecs
Gold Medal - Rutini Apartado GRAN Malbec
Silver Medal - Parcela 26 Malbec
Bronze Medal - Cobos Malbec Marchiori Vineyard

Hard to believe it has been a year since I posted to this thread, and hard to believe it's been a year since purchasing the 89 Haut Brion's.

Anyway, quick update, I'm finding that living in Paris gives a unique access to purchasing some real gems at auction, sometimes at amazing prices. In addition, it is interesting to learn so much about the wine fraud in the market. I've discovered that my previous top wine in my cellar (47 Petrus) is more than likely counterfeit, even though I bought it over 10 years ago. Perhaps it was a Rudy invention. Perhaps Hardy, who knows.

The new "top wine" additions to the cellar:

1999 De Vogue Musigny VV
1926 Haut Brion
1928 Haut Brion
1969 La Tache
Unknown red wine from the late 1700's

The last one, for me, is the most fascinating. My philosophy is that wine should be opened and drunk, but to open this wine is to destroy history. Still, I do believe that I will open it, perhaps later this year with some of my wine friends. Hmmm...

I was such a rookie back then. ;)

These days:

Kapcsandy
Maybach
Schrader

... and a few French wines.

Maybe WineDo 8 should be limited to high end wines? @:-)
Here's the link to WineDo 7 (sold out). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...-2014-nyc.html

dh

Congratulations on you above impressive list. Given your interest in older wines, you must know Francois Audouze...? I understand he is quite a legend amongst those that like wines with al least a couple of decades. If you haven't met him, given your above list you should try to seek him out... Im sure he would be very interested in meeting with you... ^

Yes, Francois is partly responsible for my chasing older wines.

Recent additions to my cellar........

2011 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae
2012 Catena Zapata Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae
2010 Bressia Ultima Hoja
2010 Grand Vineyards Parcela 26 Malbec
2013 Rutini Apartado Gran Malbec
2009 Felipe Rutini
2010 Catena Zapata Estiba Reservada
2006 Dom Perignon Blanc Luminous Edition
2004 Dom Perignon Blanc Luminous Edition
2004 Dom Perignon Rose Luminous Edition
2010 Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 6000ml Imperial
2010 Bressia Special Edition 10 Years 3000ml Double Magnum
2012 Rutini Antologia XXXVI 3000ml Double Magnum

We used to have a lot of bottles of stuff like Chateau Pavie (which for me was a lot) and then all my friends drank it. So now our cellar has a cap of $15 a bottle. It's a pretty pathetic change for the worst. :)

My most valuable wine would be a couple of bottles of '86 Ch. Mouton Rothschild. I don't know if it's my best wine. I've got close to a thousand different wines, and any number of them might actually be better.

So much about wine is how individual bottles develop over time.

Agreed 100% !!!!

Recent additions to the ArgEnology Cellar.....

Felipe Rutini 2010
Catena Zapata Estiba Reservada 2013
Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 2015
Angelica Zapata Malbec Alta 2016
Yacuil 2015
Bressia Ultima Hoja 2012
DON Uco Valley 2015
O Fournier Malbec 2012
Yacochuya Rolland 2016
Amar & Vivir 2017