Friday, October 10 2008
Red Ink, Red Wine
I swear, the economy was like that when I got here
How about that world economy? I know, it's enough to drive you to drink--not that I've ever felt it necessary to have an excuse. Having been through this a couple of times, I've learned that the best way to protect your retirement is to avoid looking at your portfolio: that way you'll avoid a thrombosis and live long enough to retire.
But it's an ill-wind that blows no good: inflated wine prices are going to have to rationalise. Far be it from me to deny any winery or winemaker to make a living and even a good profit on his craft and his product. But speculators around the world have driven the price of ordinary wine to idiotic levels: what justifies Screaming Eagle tens of thousands of dollars a bottle? You got me, considering that a tonne of grapes makes over 300 bottles. That would pay a grower ten million dollars an acre . . . there are no cash crops outside of Afghanistan or Colombia that generate that sort of revenue, in normal circumstances.
So it's speculators, obsessive wine collecting goons and the kind of shallow jerks who buy stuff just because they like owning things that drive the price. And they do it because of an economic principle known as Veblen Goods. According to Wikipedia:
In economics, Veblen goods are a theoretical group of commodities for which peoples' preference for buying them increases as a direct function of their price, instead of decreasing according to the theory of supply and demand.
It is claimed that some types of high-status goods, such as diamonds or luxury cars, are Veblen goods, in that decreasing their prices decreases people's preference for buying them because they are no longer perceived as exclusive or high status products. Similarly, a price increase may increase that high status and perception of exclusivity, thereby making the good even more preferable. The Veblen effect is named after the economist Thorstein Veblen, who first pointed out the concepts of conspicuous consumption and status-seeking.
The answer to the question, "What's hairy and goes 'bling!'"
Veblen purchasers are pretty despicable, from the perspective of a poor-but-honest imbiber like me, because they often don't care about the product itself, or the quality. They merely want to be reassured that they're paying a top dollar for something other people can't afford. Back when I was slumming as a professional somellier I witnessed extremes of this behaviour, like the fellow who ordered me to bring him the most expensive wine on the menu for this Entrecôte de bœuf sauce aux anchois. Since he was eating a very savoury steak dish, I advised against ordering our two-thousand dollar bottle of Château d'Yquem, but he would have none of my nonsense! So he drank a wine as sweet as honey with his beef . . . and didn't care about the taste of either, as they were simply the most expensive things he could find on the menu.
'45? Take it back: it's too old!
My reactionary proletarian anger aside, when money markets get tighter, even the most profligate draw back on discretionary spending, leaving a little room for those of us who work for a living. When I first started learning about wine it was in the economic slump of the 1980's. In those days I was drinking top-notch California wines for prices even a grease-monkey like me could afford. Heck, the cult wine of the time was Heitz Martha's Vineyard, and it cost me less than a half-day's pay, not a down-payment on an apartment building.
Of course, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the current downturn means that like most folks, I'll be watching my pennies more carefully than ever. Thank goodness we make our own wine, so we're neither subject to the whims of the global markets or excesses of Veblenites, nor the crushing burden of trying to maintain a decent cellar from commercial supplies.
It's off to the cellar for me, as I've got to round up a bottle of red: I'm suddenly hungry for steak in anchovy sauce.
| Posted by Tim AT 6:48PM | 0 Comments |  |
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