Friday, 31 December, 2021
Winemag.co.za, Michael Fridjhon
Fifty years ago Romanée-Conti – even then the world’s most desirable Burgundy – cost roughly ten times the price of a bottle of Nederburg Selected Cabernet. Today the multiple is closer to 2000.
Single-site prestige compounded with vastly increased demand is the kind of heady formula that has driven this kind of inflation. But not all wine prices have risen at the rate of Romanée-Conti. First Growth Bordeaux – which used to enjoy price parity with Romanée-Conti – now fetches one-tenth its price.
Cult wines trade in much more volatile space than their bigger volume counterparts. In any given vintage there’s at least thirty times more Lafite Rothschild about than Romanée-Conti, and half as much Harlan as Petrus. What buyers are chasing here has very little to do with what’s in the bottle, and vastly more to do with what the label conveys: possession of such super-rarities is not simply a reflection of disposable income but access to the inaccessible.
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