Just before leaving Hong Kong on Sunday, a friend invited me to a Chinese lunch at the Mandarin Hotel. He said it was going to be a light dim sum lunch with a few bottles with friends. I arrived looking at a full range of wines sitting on the side table in the back of a private dinning room. I counted about 16 bottles total. They were already into 1990 Gagnard-Delagrange Le Montrachet as the aperitif.
I lost count of the number of dishes and wines, but the “wall of shame,” as my friend called the empty bottles at the end, included Dr. Loosen Riesling Auslese Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Wehlener Sonnenuhr, 1997 Château Laville Haut Brion Pessac-Léognan White, 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche, 1989 G. Roumier Bonnes Mares, 1959 Haut-Brion, 1978 La Mission Haut-Brion, 1999 Armand Rousseau Chambertin, 1997 Gaja Langhe Sperss, 1994 Bodegas Vega Sicilia Ribera del Duero Unico Gran Reserva, and 1864 Blandy’s Madeira Grand Cama de Lobos Solera Proprietary Blend.
Aside from the obvious jewels in the tasting, the big surprise was the 1978 La Mission. The wine had so much iodine, spices, dried flowers and stony character – not to mention the dried dark fruits – that it was almost hard to believe. It’s currently one of my favorite La Missions and sells for much less than some of the big classic vintages, especially 1975 – which can be disappointing. I scored the 1978 La Mission 99 points.
Flying back to Europe last night, I kept thinking how great bottles of wine are being consumed in Asia at a rate never seen before. They are opened everyday in tastings, lunches and dinners. So, the wines are sure to become rarer and rarer – and more expensive.
I am not sad about this, however. It was sadder in the 1980s when many wine collectors in North America bought great wines and then just hoarded them. Many had very little intention of ever drinking them. They were trophies.
I remember one evening in the late 1980s when I was at The Wine Spectator asking the owner of Lafite-Rothschild, Eric de Rothschild, what advice he would give wine collectors for investing in wine. He laughed and said, “Tell them to invest in a corkscrew to open their wines and drink them. That’s what they are made for.”
It’s like owning a fine vintage car that you never drive. You can’t help but to think “What’s the point?”.