Economic Indicators: Dumb Money, Big Money, and Chinese Money
Harry & David, where you can buy pears for $3.50 each, is getting into the wine business. Entry-level for the H&D Wine Club is $780 a year, in exchange for which you will get 36 more-or-less $20 bottles of wine. If you prefer to receive only wines rated 90 points or above, the tab is $1,260, or $35 a bottle. Included in the first 90-point shipment: 2007 Frog’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails for about $25.
For as long as written records have been kept, Penfold’s Grange ($550) has been the most expensive Australian wine. No longer. Torbreck has launched The Laird, a Barossa Valley shiraz aged in “magic casks,” at $700 a bottle. In 2012 Penfolds will respond with Bin 620, a Cabernet-Shiraz blend that the company says will cost more than Grange.
Finally, for their 2008 vintages, both Lafite and Mouton will feature labels by Chinese designers. Lafite went first, announcing that it would emboss each label with the Chinese number “8,” which is “particularly auspicious ” to the superstitious among Chinese. (Roughly the equivalent of “7″ in the U.S.) In 48 hours after the announcement, the price of Lafite in China jumped 17%. Mouton counters with artist Xu Lei, who seems to like the color blue. No word on price increases for the Mouton, but I, personally, will not be surprised.
November 30th, 2010 at 8:39 AM
Chris Ringland Shiraz 100 pts RPjr. $676 as of two years ago. Just curious if the Chinese have bought in to Aussie wines?
December 2nd, 2010 at 8:00 PM
You should have your blog transposed into Chinese and then make the chinaman’s version subscription only. Even better, create some faux jetsetter character as the author and you’ll be raking it in! Especially after you announce that your character has created a few, limited edition, hand crafted wine blends for sale exclusively on his blog! Gawd, I look forward to the china bubble bust.