Expensive Wines Have Ridiculous Inflation

As a broad classification, the most expensive wines in the world are Burgundies. Primarily red, but a few whites as well. Are they worth it? It depends who you ask, but don't ask me as I will never know. 

There is a website that every year compiles a list of the 10 most expensive labels on average and shows that average retail price. And, it is not split by vintage, so the most prized vintages are ever more expensive.

In 2021, 9 of the top 10 are Burgundies (the other one being a TBA Riesling) and 8 of the top 10 cost more than $10,000 per 750 ml bottle, on average. Compare to 2019, when only 5 exceeded $10,000. In just 2 years, the price to make this esteemed list has gone up by more than 50%. That is inflation.

The number one wine on the list is the Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru weighing in at an average of $32,857 per 750 ml bottle. On the 2020 list, the same wine was not #1, but it was only about $17,000 per bottle. What happened there?

Who drinks this stuff? Presumably, it's people who have so much money that they don't care. Jeff Bezos, for example, could drink over 6 million bottles of this wine before running out of money and that's assuming he did that in one fell swoop. 

Probably topping the list of who does drink wine like this, however, are entertainers (athletes, musicians, and actors among them) and influencers (those blobs of humanity who contribute nothing useful to soceity, but get paid millions of dollars to attempt to influence the buying decisions that you and I make). 

As wine has become more trendy, those people are drinking more and more of it. And, they want the very best, or at least the most expensive to show that they can, so the most expensive get even more expensive.

Personally, my tolerance for spending on a bottle of wine is going through a bit of deflation. Yes, I'll still fork out for an occasional individual bottle although not as much as you are likely thinking, but I find myself buying more and more wine for under $10. The wine influencers are driving me away. I am not succumbing to this horrible inflation. Neither should you.


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