1 Wine Dude

The $500 Wine Question

Posted on by 1WineDude

What wine would you buy right now if you had $500 to spend on it?

I mean, let’s say you were given $500 cash, right now, and told the only condition upon receiving it was that you had to spend that money on wine, and you had to buy it right now.

What would you buy?

I’ve been thinking about this question for days and days, and it’s made me curious as to how the intelligent, witty, and better-than-average-looking 1WineDude.com readership would answer it.

Do you blow the whole wad on one wine, like a very-good-but-not-great vintage of Chateau Petrus, just to say t hat you did it at least once? Or go for two bottles of a classified Right Bank Bordeaux?  How about dabbling in a little high-end Burgundy?  Or take a dessert wine tour of the world, through Porto, Madeira, Hungary, Sauternes, Niagara, Jerez…?  Or a bargain-end binge shopping spree, stocking up on fairly-priced wines

It’s a compelling proposition, isn’t it?

Here’s the part that will start to bake your noodle:

Once you’ve decided on an answer… ask yourself Why haven’t I bought myself that wine already?  Is it because $500 isn’t exactly small change in today’s crappy economy?  Catholic guilt preventing you from spending that kind of money on yourself?

I think reading each others’ responses to these questions would be fascinating.

I’ll kick things off – I’d blow the whole wad on one wine, the kind of cultish wine like Petrus that is supposed to blow your mind, just to see if it can really live up to the stratospheric hype factor.

How about YOU?

Cheers!

58 thoughts on “The $500 Wine Question”

  1. A bottle of Sine Qua Non… well, any Sine Qua Non (preferably a red), and 2 Riedel Vitis glasses to share the bottle with my girlfriend. Something about the shape of those glasses and the hip, cultish-ness of the SQN makes it an appealing combo. Why haven't I bought it? I can't actually find a bottle! If I came upon one, I would take the plunge. Or I always accept donations!

  3. Since I've never had any and I'd really like to try them, I'd buy 4-5 bottles that typically price around $100, e.g., BDX red, CdP red, Sauternes, aged Mosel Riesling, Barolo. I wish I could afford a red Burg but they're too overpriced.

  4. I think I'd try to hit a couple of benchmarks, maybe Sassicaia and Penfold's Grange.

    I'm not sure you can get even a bad vintage of Petrus for $500 any more. Perhaps the approach should be for ten of us to pool our $500 and put together a killer six or seven wine tasting:

  6. I’ll come from more of the practical side but still some adventure. I love expanding my wine horizons but don’t want dive in with my own money and discovery that I hate something. I would walk into a wine shop and pick up something from every region they had. I would explore regions of France, Italy, Spain, Germany.

    To be specific
    2003 La Gerla Brunello Di Montalcino Riserva Angeli Italy
    2007 Charbonniere Vieilles Vignes Chat Du Pape France
    2004 Torres Mas La Plana Cabernet Sauvignon Spain
    2008 Keller Cuvee Beerenauslese Germany
    2006 De Toren Fusion V South Africa
    Barkan Classic Chardonnay Israel, not expensive, but just curious

    I think that totals only $200 bones. Better get to work

    Josh @nectarwine

  7. With New Years quickly approaching, I'm thinking I'd go with ~10 bottles of Grower Champagne and invite a few really close friends over to share them with :)

  9. TBA, because I otherwise can't justify spending that much on something that comes in a half-bottle. Maybe a great Barolo, Cote Rotie, or something from Priorato. I just think top Bordeaux and Burgundy have too much brand equity worldwide for them to be worth the money. I'd argue the name drives demand as much as the quality, and there's other great stuff out there (Barolo may have too big a name as well…)

  11. I would buy an assortment of wines, priced $50-$100, so I would have wine to enjoy over a number of days. The list would include wines such as a fine 20 or 30 yr old Port, a Vintage Sherry, Domaine Tempier Rouge, Remeriz de Ganuza Rioja, Sean Thackrey Orion/Andromeda & Aquila. It would obviously depend on which wines were available to me. I would probably spend it all in one wine store, so their inventory would somewhat limit my choices.

    I have spent $500 before on a wine buying trip, and would do it again in the future when I have the extra cash

  13. I would probably try one higher end, like a Penfolds Grange 2004 or Chateau Bellevue Mondotte 2005, then look for value with the rest. I have so many things that I would like to try, and I hate to spend the whole thing in one place. Probably try to find a value Priorat and a Brunello.

  14. A Methusela (sp? This is from my iPhone) of Champagne! Might as well get quantity AND quality!

  15. I'd buy 6-10 bottles of various Cal and Oregon Pinots. What diversity and pleasure. I'm a Cal Pinot winemaker, so I am biased. When I look at the price of some of the dream wines mentioned and compare it to 10 bottles from my esteemed competitors, I have to go Pinot.

  16. 1979 Chateau Palmer (my husband, last name Palmer, was born in 1979)
    1998 Williams Selyam Pinot Noir (we drank this on our honeymoon)
    2005 Brogan Cellars My Father's Vineyard
    1979 Tulocay Cab Sauv

    I think I'm still under $500…

  18. Nice post, 'dude!
    I think that I'd like to do a 5 bottle vertical of 1 particular iconic wine. Choices could be, say, Beaulieu Private Reserve Cab, d'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz, Louis Jadot Chassagne-Montrachet or even a personal fav, Parsonage Carmel Valley Carmelstone Reserve Syrah. Yum!

  19. OK, so this is kind of weird… After all this talk, I go an check my mailbox today… There's a letter from Harlan Estate… I've been granted an allocation of the 2005 Harlan Estate "The Maiden" bottling… It's $450 for a three bottle case, plus $50 in shippinh brings us up to… $500. Whatya say, should I take the plunge?

    Maybe anyone want to split a case to start haha??

  20. Well… that's a lot of serendipity to be ignored. I say, follow whatever your karma tells you to do.

    By the way, it's telling you to buy the wine! ;-)

    Keep us posted!

  22. assuming i could get all of these at close to release price, i'd get the following mixed case:
    2 bottles of 2003 cayuse bionic frog
    2 bottles of 2005 chateau plince pomerol
    1 bottle of 2002 quilceda creek cabernet sauvignon
    3 bottles of boutari vinsanto
    2 bottles of mark ryan 2006 dead horse
    2 bottles of 2004 kosta browne pinot noir sonoma coast kanzler vineyard

  23. Love pinot noir so the chance to try a high end burgundy would be very tempting – although suburbanwino's TBA idea is also very appealing. tough call. assuming I'd have to acquire it in PA, what's available would be a factor.

  24. Is anyone selling ’61 Cheval Blanc by the glass? It’d pair nicely with the cheeseburger I’m craving. If not, a bottle from one of their “off” years. I can’t find any from ’77 (my birth year) – perhaps they didn’t release any?

  26. Undoubtedly a grand cru burgundy (Dujac, Leroy, Meo-Camuzet) from 2005 or a top barolo from 2004 (Gaja, Mascarelo, Conterno, or Giacosa). $500 might not be enough for the Burg, but will try hard! Nothing else is a real splurge (apologies to my Bordeaux and Rhone loving friends here), just a small indulgence :)!

  27. It is New Years so I would say a bottle of Armand de Brignac "Ace of Spades" Brut Rose. Got to love bubbles!

  28. Just blew through $500 a few times over on my Saxum allocation. Can't wait to crack some of these bottles open in a few years.

    I wouldn't mind spending $500 on some of the other great offerings coming from the James Berry Vineyard.

  29. A half bottle of '88 Chateau d'Yquem and a pint of vanilla ice cream to go with grilled peaches

  30. Purchase a couple of kegs of St. Arnolds (one amber ale and the other summer pils) and invite the neighborhood to celebrate capping the BP Macondo well! Enough left over to add in the necessary amount of Star pizza.

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