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Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
It is time for the annual renewal of my storage contract and insurance. I note, this year, that the top 3 expensive bottles, combined, are estimated to be worth just north of $3k. Drink or hold or sell?
 
how much did you pay for them, compared to their current value? are they ready to drink?

if you found these wines for sale at the price you originally paid, would you snap them up and be giddy? and in this case, would you buy them because you wanted to consume them or so you could resell them?

i have a friend that grouses at the price of great old bordeaux, but at an estate sale picked up some '61 haut brion (that was well stored) for a song--but he won't drink it because he knows that it's worth so much more. so. . .when it is inexpensive he won't drink it, and when it is expensive he won't buy it. i don't get it.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
how much did you pay for them, compared to their current value? are they ready to drink?

if you found these wines for sale at the price you originally paid, would you snap them up and be giddy? and in this case, would you buy them because you wanted to consume them or so you could resell them?
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I paid about a quarter of their current value.

Two of the three are ready to drink.

I'd probably buy two of them again at their original prices. But now that I know what they're worth....

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
If the three are oaky (likely), sell'em!
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One is.

originally posted by MLipton:
Sounds like the makings of a great cellar clearance party to me.
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Heh.
 
If you think you will like the wines, drink them. Opportunity costs are not the same as money and if you sell all the things in your cellar that become valuable, why have a cellar in the first place. On the other hand, if you don't think you will like the wines or you can think of wines you would like more for the money they will bring you, sell them, because, as everybody knows, opportunity costs are the same as money. I think that about covers it.
 
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
Bubbe, just tell us what they are and feel the full power (and drawbacks) of crowd thinking.
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Mugnier 1993 Musigny
Bachelet 1999 Charmes-Chambertin
Guigal 1990 La Landonne

Though I think Jonathan has already demonstrated, in a mere three lines, exactly what I can expect. But still and all, good to air the issues a bit and get some perspective on how the mental dust settles.
 
The Guigal is probably good at this point, but I'd sell the Guigal, buy lots of goodies with the money, and keep the other two for transcendental occasions.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
Bubbe, just tell us what they are and feel the full power (and drawbacks) of crowd thinking.
Click to expand...
Mugnier 1993 Musigny
Bachelet 1999 Charmes-Chambertin
Guigal 1990 La Landonne

Though I think Jonathan has already demonstrated, in a mere three lines, exactly what I can expect. But still and all, good to air the issues a bit and get some perspective on how the mental dust settles.
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My approach is to sell when the market price significantly exceeds what I would be willing to pay for the bottle, unless keeping the bottle is basically the only chance I'll ever have at the experience and the wine is in a category that's really in my wheelhouse. So there is some irrationality in the calculus but that's what works for me. (btw, I just sold a LOT of overvalued stuff and it feels great.) In your case I wouldn't hesitate to sell the Mugnier and the Guigal, as the value of both is vastly inflated by label glam. In the case of the Guigal that label glam doesn't even correlate to likely enjoyment on your part - surely you'd get more enjoyment drinking Chave or Jamet. In the case of Mugnier the label glam is just irrational because it's being applied ex post facto back to before J.F. Mugnier went full time with the domaine and the quality ascended to its current level.

I don't know the market price of the Bachelet but I'm a little surprised if it's at the $1k level. That would be an easy sell for me too.
 
I once heard somewhere that Denis Bachelet said the 1999 Charmes-Chambertin is the best wine he ever made. I'd sell the other two and drink that one (but not yet).
 
Well, I'd certainly hang on to the Mugnier Musigny, for the same reason that I'd hang on to an original Van Gogh: no way am I going to get another bottle at today's going prices. OTOH, I've never really "got" Guigal's LaLas, so I'd happily sell that off.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
Well, I'd certainly hang on to the Mugnier Musigny, for the same reason that I'd hang on to an original Van Gogh: no way am I going to get another bottle at today's going prices.
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Yeah, but for the price of the Mugnier you can get two or three bottles of Jadot Musigny which will be as good or better.

I'd sell the original Van Gogh even quicker! That'll buy you a lifetime supply of Musigny.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:

I'd sell the original Van Gogh even quicker! That'll buy you a lifetime supply of Musigny.
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And you can still enjoy the Van Gogh images on the internet, in books and in museums.

Hard to get the same second-hand appreciation of wine!
 
I can't recall ever selling nor do I ever intend to sell any of my wine.

If I lose interest in a good wine, I might gift it or donate it, but more than likely I will just mark it for everyday drinking.

. . . . Pete
 
I'd want to keep the Van Gogh. Living with a painting is not the same as seeing it on the internet. But at current auction prices, I could probably buy myself a Caillebotte and two more vacation homes, and stock all my homes with unconscionable amounts of overpriced wine, and that would be hard to resist.

Given my tastes, I'd almost certainly sell the La La. But I wouldn't if I liked the stuff. Having no experience with either the Mugnier or the Bachelet, I don't know what to say about those.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
originally posted by MLipton:
Well, I'd certainly hang on to the Mugnier Musigny, for the same reason that I'd hang on to an original Van Gogh: no way am I going to get another bottle at today's going prices.
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Yeah, but for the price of the Mugnier you can get two or three bottles of Jadot Musigny which will be as good or better.

I'd sell the original Van Gogh even quicker! That'll buy you a lifetime supply of Musigny.
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Sell the Guigal because I don't care about having a chance to drink it.

Keith - my recollection is that Burghound was really bullish on the 1993 Mugniers, esp. the Musigny. But my old printouts of the early issues are buried in boxes somewhere and I haven't had a subscription for years.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
If you think you will like the wines, drink them. Opportunity costs are not the same as money and if you sell all the things in your cellar that become valuable, why have a cellar in the first place [...]
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Ja. If your tastes have changed a lot since time of purchase; then trade them with a friend. Unless you're itb, or liquidating a big stock, who wants to piss around selling individual bottles of wine, anyway? (Granted, New York is a special place, where such transactions may be common).

Or if you're in money trouble and need to defray your cellar fees out of other than current income. Otherwise, reap the harvest of your foresight and perspicacity.

What Jay said on the Bachelet: what I hear is that good '99s are still snoozing.
 
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