Recently a 462 case shipment of 2010 Mollydooker Velvet Glove Shiraz was dropped in by a faulty forklift truck leaving 461 cases smashed. That is 5532 bottles and each one was expected to retail at 200 USD a bottle. The loss is calculated to be over 1 million USD. The fact is most bottles of wine do not cost more than 16 USD each to produce, so maybe the losses were rather exaggerated. It is a good story however. I have never tasted Mollydooker Shiraz but is is probably a very good wine so it is a shame it was wasted.
You may ask why this wine is so expensive, well wines from this producer have been scored 99 out of 100 by a famous wine commentator. Fame, marketing and rarity value does the rest. This wine is produced in very small quantities. I do not know whether this wine is that much better than any of the other excellent wines produced in the Mclaren Vale. But I do know this, I regularly visit the Burgundy area of France and have tasted bottles of red which are of better quality, in my opinion, at 25 USD than wines from the region costing a lot, lot more. But the difference is not that great; one would expect a wine costing 150 bucks plus to be of high quality.
Many "boutique style wines" are now being used as investment instruments which causes their price to sky rocket further. My advice would be to taste before you buy especially if you are considering paying a very high price. The bottle of wine you are getting may disappoint you in comparison to the lower priced competitors. Even if you are investing for money only and are not really interested in the taste of wine, I still advise tasting first. There is nothing like the feel of a greenback to let you know what your investment is really worth.
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