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| Visions & Revisions |
Viniculture Clash
01/01/2006
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MacDonald: Wine is a luxury good within the fashion realm,
as well as an agricultural pursuit. Nothing is wrong with a wine selling for
less than $10 per bottle, and I am glad for wines like “two-buck Chuck” [Fred
Franzia’s Charles Shaw label] because it brings new wine consumers into the
market. This same thing happened back in 1988 to 1990 when the surplus in
California combined with a poor economy. The reason for a $100 or $10,000 bottle
of wine to exist is simple economics.
What is your opinion of wine collectors who view wine as an investment?
Barzan: It is a good investment if you are very careful and really know what
you are doing—and you consult the experts. If you want to buy wine as an
investment, be sure it can age very well, in the right conditions. It has to
become better as it ages, not worse.
Over the past 20 years, wine has been
one of the best investments around. In Italy 20 years ago, you could buy a
Sassicaia for about $15 or $20, and today a 1985 vintage will go for close to
$2,000. At Bottega Del Vino, we get requests for these kinds of wines every day
from people who can pay for it.
For some, it is a commodity. I hope the
buyers are wine lovers, and that they drink the wine and enjoy it. Life is
short. But you can make a profit as well.
MacDonald: Good for them! Wine is a
hobby, and a fun one. It makes people who might start off as strangers become
friends as they share their passion over dinner and become inebriated. Nothing
wrong with that. Many of the world’s problems have been solved over wine—and
then forgotten the next morning.
Wine can be an investment. Many have
succeeded in building cellars over the years that cost them nothing due to
astute purchases in the initial years. However, I would not recommend it as an
investment for profit motives; it makes one wary of opening bottles now and
then—which is what the real fun is about after all.
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