How much would cost a bottle of...?!

How much would cost a bottle of...?

16 year Lagavuling single malt scotch and the three main Chateau Latour wines: Grand Vin de Chateau Latour, Les Forts de Latour and Pauillac.

The Scotch might cost about $80 and the distillery dates back to the mid 1700's. You did not specify a vintage for the Latouur, which is most important. It may start at about $200 for a recent bottling or $1800 for a 1964 or $3000 for 1928. You might want to try a Chateau Margaux 1924 if you can afford the five digit price tag. There are some great Baronne Phillipe Rothschild out there from the 1970's that are fine, (I have a couple if your are interested), that are relatively affordable in the less than $1000 category. I bought my Margaux about 10 years ago, but it will take another 10 or 20 years to fully enjoy its maturity.

I appreciate your taste in the Pauilliacs and they are among the best. My advice is to buy the vintage that you can afford and lay them down for a couple of decades. I purchased my Rothschild in the 1970's and now thirty something years later, they have increased in value. Best advice is to buy by the case so you can sample them every few years.

I purchased 5 cases of magnums of Ch St. Michelle Cabernet (1976 Reserve) from Washington state many years ago. I went to a wine auction and met a rep from the winery who asked if I would sell him any of them. I paid about $15 a bottle and he offered me $150 a bottle. I told him that if he was offering me that, then they must be worth more. Aside from declining his offer, the wine was so good and had opened a bottle every couple of years and even at $30 or so a glass, I would rather have kept them than selling them.

It comes to a point in wine collecting that the wine become like nector and so very good that the price you can sell it for is irrelevant, since you didn't pay what it would currently be worth. I have sold a couple bottles that I kept for decades and regretted it later. On the other hand, I have opened vintage wines that were so great that I wish I hadn't. It is a difficult decision for a collector to either sell, open, or never open a bottle.

I've been at home with no wine to drink except for those in my collectible status. I then go to the liquor store and buy something off the shelf and drink that. Because of my love of my collection (my oldest is only a Margaux from 1966), I have a problem with both opening them or selling them. Should I open a wine that would bring me $200 per glass in a sale, or should I sell it and never know how it tasted? A very difficult decision.

You'll hate me for this, but in 1982 I went to the Hublien rare auction in Atlanta at the Ritz and tasted a Madeira that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte. He bought it on credit to bring to St. Helaina for Josephine; yet died on his journey home. There were 6 bottles left and the winery confiscated them because he hadn't paid for them. The fist bottle was opened and it was bad. The second was fantastic and the remaining bottles sold for $35,000 each. The vintage was 1791 and my small drips of the taste of it was like honey from the gods. I rimmed my glass with my handkerchief to retain the smell as long as it lasted. I can't smell it anymore, but the stain remains.

At the same auction is where I tasted the 1924 Margaux I mentioned before. I was behind the person who got the last taste. He used the spittoon and was going to dump the rest of his glass contents into it. I grabbed his arm and said, "Sir, please, may I have your glass and he gave it to me. I drank the last drops of it and licked the inside of the glass. It was a remarkable wine and I'll never forget the taste. I thought how stupid to spit out the wine and moreover to empty the glass in no less than a trash can.

Later in 1987 working for the Willard Hotel, one block from the White House and being a member of the Sommelier Society of Washington, I was given a challenge at one of their events. There were 7 brown paper bags with a bottle of Pinot Noir in each. It was not disclosed that each bag enclosed Pinot Noir. I happen to like Pinots and especially those from the Willamate Valley of Oregon (Trefethen specifically). The prize was a port signed by the wine maker of Quady. I was the only contestant who could not only name the variety (being all Pinot Noir), but the winery and the vintage of each one. I received my signed bottle of port by Andrew Quady and a sterling silver tastevin with neck chain (wine tasting cup who don't know what that is) and a medal of accomplishment by the Sommelier Society of Washington, D.C.

Stories I could tell....