48 Hours: In Vino Veritas?
I recently had Horse Ridge Cellars drop off a few cases of wine that I had purchased and tucked away in climate controlled cellars nearly a decade ago. Some of the wines were bought straight from the producer and others from retailers. It is amazing to see some of the price labels stuck on the bottles… Wines that command well over $125 a bottle today could be had under $40 back in the 90’s.
These wines, many Cabernet’s from the acclaimed 1994 Vintage in California, were just singing. Not only were the bottles and labels in pristine condition but the wines had aged perfectly. They were laid down and stored before Google was even a glimmer in Larry Page’s eye.
Of course in the mid-90’s I was wealthier than Larry and Sergey.
Times change.
I was sure of the wines provenance given I had bought the wines on release. But traders of Bordeaux wine have long been wary of a wine’s provenance, given the multitude of fake bottles of Petrus floating around the market. Buying aged wine can sometimes prove to be as treacherous as trying to bottom fish in the stocks of subprime lenders. And going with a reputable auction house is no guarantee, as even the experts get fooled from time to time.
By Elin McCoy
March 30 (Bloomberg)—Colgin Cellars, whose over-the-top cabernets from California’s Napa Valley sell at auction for hundreds of dollars, is the first ``cult’’ winery to say it’s fighting off potential fakes with new technology from Kodak.
Owner Ann Colgin just signed a deal with the company’s security solutions division. Though the former Sotheby’s auctioneer says she’s not aware of any Colgin counterfeits out in the marketplace, ``the problem has been an issue on my radar for some time.’’
In the growing concern about fake wines, most attention has focused on blue-chip Bordeaux and Burgundy and rare old bottles. But California’s in-demand cult cabs and cab blends, such as Colgin, Harlan Estate and Screaming Eagle, are prime targets: They’re made in minuscule quantities and sell for $200 to $500 a bottle only to subscribers on mailing lists, some of whom flip them for two to four times the price. Bloomberg
Still auctions are your best bet...although I have always found the pre-auction tastings to be the main event.. If you are a buyer stick in a bid with a limit order to resist the temptation to raise it.
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