European vs American wine market: Romanee Conti pricing

I’m a novice in this business, but I permit myself the arrogance of doubt. Sometimes I have my reservations about our purchasing decisions, like in the last couple of days.

Being based in Italy, and trading in French wine, you would think that Europe had enough on offer that we wouldn’t have to search overseas; except on special occasions as in the case of Acker’s Hong Kong auction in May – after all you don’t find magnums of Mouton Rothschild 1945 just floating around on the market.

But in the last couple of days I have had reason to be more concerned about our wine purchasing strategy as we acquire a number of bottles of Romanee Conti 2005 from an American wine merchant.

One set comes in an open wine case (OWC) which is good for the collection, but we already have an ocean of Romanee Conti 2005 and even purchasing in the less favourable sterling currency we’d get it for less – in the case of the OWC a good 2000 euros difference. The only question is availability.

Then there’s the trip to be considered. My colleague expertly tells me that wines imported from the US have a lesser value, due to jet lag presumably. Just kidding, although this argument often amuses me as at its base lies the concern over less prudent transportation practices. Higher temperatures, dodgy packing etc. affects the quality of the wine.

I think it should be stipulated that it affects the drinkability of the wine, not its image. And lets face it, most of these wines are not purchased to be consumed, but to lie in wait for an increase in brand image before selling them on.

Anyway, fingers crossed we can get the wines delivered straight to our free port cellaring facilities. Otherwise a 20 percent tax haul means we could really be shooting ourselves in the foot.

Bag-in-box opposed by sommeliers

The Italian Sommeliers' Association has opposed the move to allow DOC wines to be packaged in carton. After my chat about whether the bag-in-box can be directly connected to quality or not, it appears that AIS perceives this is a definite negative image for Italian wine.

President of the Sommeliers Association, Terenzio Medri, has said that it opposes the philosophy of protecting high quality wines. "The decision ...risks damaging the entire image of Italian wine, which has proved itself to be excellent and competitive in recent years. Can you imagine a DOC wine from an important vintage being packaged in carton?"