wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

The title is not entirely new, nor did I come up with it. I came across it on a wine website in connection with Bordeaux 2009. Dirk Würz, a passionate vintner and blogger, summarizes: "...what has been happening in the past few years in terms of price gouging [in Bordeaux] is already quite violent. Now there is a new peak in this development..... Money doesn't matter, quality doesn't matter either way. It's all about the image of the brand...." I have already written about the "Bordeaux madness" several times, and I have thought about it even more often. The explanations for the - from the wine lover's point of view - unpleasant situation have long been formulated, the arguments exchanged. What is to be done? Shake one's head, resign, turn away?

"In these sacred halls ..." - Barrel storage at Château Lafite Rothschild in Pauillac

Consolation comes from all sides: directly from the Bordelais, in wine publications, from wine merchants and critics. For the long-suffering Bordeaux drinker, it is "those wines that are not or only slightly inferior in quality to the many unaffordable 'cult wines'. They are also a little more expensive. But there, one should not lament about the price, but enjoy the quality".

Why does this "consolation" not reach me? Why can't it stop my "farewell to Bordeaux"? Why am I not rejoicing that "the grace of early birth" has given me a Bordeaux cellar that is worth x times as much today? Why?

Quite simply because Bordeaux - like many other wines - are for me a part of my life: my everyday life, my interest, my beautiful but also sorrowful hours, my longings, my desires, my being together and enjoying with friends. And there - regardless of whether I can afford it or want it - a bottle of wine that costs 1000 or even 10000 francs (the content may still be so enjoyable and unique) simply has no place.

Survivors from the 19th century: Original bottles at Château Latour

My value system has a different scale. Luxury, I certainly indulge in that from time to time. Not everything in my life is good value for money. And I don't like to complain at all; complain that I don't own a yacht, like the hundreds and thousands of them lying in front of me in the harbour; complain that our smallest apartment is located by the sea, but only has two tiny rooms; complain that an old Smart and not an "Infiniti FX" is available for trips to the wineries; complain that I haven't earned more money in my whole life to be able to afford the best Bordeaux 2009. For all my hidden and unacknowledged willingness to whine, that's not how it works! Wine for me - you can tell me what you want - is a product of pleasure, enjoyment and interest.

Of course I would like to go to sea one day in a beautiful yacht; of course I would be happy for a few square meters of bigger room when my clutter almost crushes me; of course a trip in a sleek air-conditioned sleigh would be more pleasant than in a crowded TGV; of course I would rather pour an Ausone 2000 (1500 euros) tonight than the "Prieuré de Saint-Jean" from Coteaux du Languedoc (22 euros).

Newly built presentation cave at Château Pétrus% for what is probably the biggest cult wine in the Bordelais

But there - at this banal statement - doubts befall me. Would I really rather? With all my longing for pleasure, would I really enjoy drinking a wine that costs 1500 and more euros on an evening - no matter how beautiful, cosy and coherent it may be? Simply because it is good, better than most others. It's not the 1478 euro price difference that ultimately bothers me. If I could afford them, they would quickly be written off under "enjoyment" or "expenses of life". No, this cannot be it. I've had quite different "expenses" to charge off in my life. So it must be somewhere else entirely.

All at once I realize: it is the reversal of values that leaves me so angry, perplexed. It's the "µm" (micrometer) of being better, of offering more pleasure potential, of being unique that society (including us wine geeks) has hyped up, that we want to buy with money. The amount of money is less important than the buyability of pleasure. Wine is also offered for this purpose: everywhere and as expensively as possible. Even in the department store: Cityshopping in the Galerie Lafayette in Paris, Mouton Rothschild 1945 for 20000 Euro. Whether the wine is better by a few "µm", I don't know. I have never drunk it.

Century wines at Château Mouton Rothschild

What I do know for sure, however, is that none of the buyers of this or a similar bottle are concerned with the few "µm" gains in pleasure. Rather, it's about completely different values: about social prestige, about investing money, about speculation, about the conviction that money can buy everything, including the feeling of freedom through unlimited consumption... These are all understandable motivations, even for me.

I can even understand the function of the market, which reacts quickly and violently: even higher prices, even more cult, even more profit... As long as people participate in this system, it works... And should they no longer participate, the profits have long since been invested in other, safer values. So what?

Other cult areas know similar mechanisms: art, for example. A painting, once created by a penniless artist, can - if the cult manages it - one day cost billions. In the vast majority of cases, the creator of the painting hardly ever lives to see it. So what?

There is one very small difference: a picture, a sculpture, a work of art can be protected, preserved, saved for later generations. All those who encounter the work from now on can deal with it, enjoy it, admire it, recognise the taste of the time from it and, and, and... If necessary - should it suffer damage, age too much - it will be professionally restored. Not so the cult object wine: it carries the transitoriness in itself; is created to be consumed. It is a food, to be consumed - like any food - in this case to be drunk.

In the deep cellar% the barrel storage at Clos Fourtet.

That's where the madness lies. Not in the horrendous costs, not in the unattainability of certain wines, not in the profit poker of the winemakers. No! Rather in the fact that we allow a food (even if it is a luxury food) to be elevated to the status of a "golden calf". That we watch it being exposed to speculation, profit, greed and acquisitiveness without protection. And at the same time, fueling the market with fine words, lots of Parker points and the highest honors, mostly with very secret, never expressed wishes to be among the winners ourselves one day.

As a Bordeaux collector and connoisseur, I have also contributed to the fact that certain wines, perhaps the best wines, have become something supernatural. Hardly to be paid with earthly means anymore. That's where my uneasy feeling lies, that's where the scandal is to be found. It is a shift in values that affects everyone, those who make wine, those who sell wine, those who drink wine and those who enjoy wine.

Thus, the madness of Bordeaux 2009 has another name after all. It is called: pleasure - or let's say it more generally - the pursuit of happiness. Happiness, however - we know this from our own life experience - cannot be bought, is not available in stores. Not even when the "most expensive Bordeaux of all times" is once again advertised and offered for sale

Cordially

Yours sincerely

Related Magazine Articles

View All
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS