Bordeaux Swap Meet

Posted 03/21/2008 at 07:40 AM by Ben

I have recently discovered a surefire method of knocking of 80% or 90% off the price of even the most hard to find, expensive wines.

There's just one little catch. To make it work, you already have to own hard to find, expensive wines. With that little caveat in mind, here's how it works.

Let us suppose that, unlike me, you were smart enough to buy a bottle of Chateau Latour from the great 1982 vintage right when it came out. If my recollection serves me correctly, the price was about $35 a bottle. Today, that same bottle is worth approximately $800.

Let us further suppose that you are interested a obtaining a bottle of Chateau Latour from the equally great 2005 vintage. When you check with your favorite retailer, you will notice that prices have gone up just a tad since 1982. Well, more than a tad actually. A bottle of 2005 Chateau Latour will set you back about $800, which you will note is roughly the same as the going rate on the 1982.

This suggests a problem ripe for a solution, and it turns out there is one. Many retailers will gladly swap a bottle of their 2005 Latour for your bottle of 1982 Latour, give or take a few bucks to make it work for them and for you, and to cover the inevitable taxes. The stores that are most likely to do this are those that are active in the high end Bordeaux business, which can be found all over the country.

Of course, it's crazy that the ' 05 Chateau Latour sells for $800. But the way I look at it, if you are lucky enough to have some 1982 Chateau Latour to swap for it,  you can get the' 05 for $35. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

E-Mail | Digg this! | del.icio.us
The No Spit Zone RSS | Comments RSS for this post