The Brian Devine Cellar

[Tom_Reddick]

$30,515 for '05 Leroy Musigny?

In the past 12 months, most bottles of every vintage of Leroy Musigny from the past 20-25 years that have come to auction have sold for over $10,000 a bottle- and very recently far above that. This is not the only rare burgundy that has a similar pattern- so I am hard pressed to attribute the change to a single collector, though it is possible there is one or two billionaires moving the dial on several wines at the moment.

I wasn’t aware that it had gone up that much at auction. Thanks for the info.

I used to own quite a few bottles which I sold in the late 90s. Thought I was making out great selling them for about $800 each.

[Keith_Levenberg]

Makes one wonder, what exactly is wrong with the 2005 vintage?

Boomers’ actuarial tables

[Craig_G]

I don’t think he needed or needs the money. I suspect it was passion that fueled the chase. Many of us have far too much wine. I’ll probably be on my deathbed interrupting last rites to make one final purchase.

Obviously all guessing, but I totally agree with this. For people with really big money, wine is realatively cheap. You want X, Y, Z… you buy a case. Then at some point you realize that there’s no way to drink it when it’s mature. I don’t think many people acquire 20+ thousand bottles because they are trying to make money on it. It’s because they want those wines. The ability to buy just outstrips the ability to drink.

If only I had that problem

[Anthony_Iezzi]

I sold him some wine years ago via the old wine commune site!

[Andrew_K]

Act quickly as these wines, all in pristine condition, will not be on the market long.

Actually, most of those overpriced higher end bottles are still sitting there. I wonder if Benchmark actually paid millions for this cellar or it’s consignment and they don’t care how long it sits?

[David_Baum]

Crazy to be selling all that just when it’s starting to get within eyesight of early drinking windows