For What It’s Worth

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

            In my last post I briefly mentioned the question of worth, as it is frequently weighed by customers:  are these three figure wines actually worth the price?  The answer, then and now, is of course that it depends on who’s doing the purchasing.  People have engaged in commerce for as long as we’ve been walking the planet, stumbling across other folks, checking out their stuff, comparing it to our stuff, and working out trades.  And it’s always been the same.  An item’s worth is whatever a willing seller agrees to accept from a willing buyer.

            Sounds pretty simple.  But there are many different reasons for, and perceptions of, the desirability of things.  Take gold.  Always pricey, it’s lately been soaring in value.  We can get into the economics of gold trading and discuss the dollar’s valuation, the trade imbalance, the deficit, etc.  But the bottom line, folks, is that gold has always been valuable because it’s pretty.  That’s it.  Well, that and the fact that it’s soft and easy to form into jewelry, coins, and crowns.  But basically it’s shiny and pretty, and we humans have liked things like that since we came out of the trees.

            Of course things can get complicated.  We’ll pay for food because it’s necessary to stay alive, for cars and computers because they’re useful tools, and for gold and diamonds because they’re gorgeous.  These days, however, most of us in this country (and large parts of the rest of the world) are blessed to live beyond subsistence level.  Our discretionary time and income produce greater variation in the definition of worth, as do societal influences.  Courvoisier, Cristal, and Cadillac Escalades all became more desirable for Hip-Hip fans once stars like P. Diddy and Jay-Z started rapping about them.  And there’s no denying the social cachet of driving a Bentley, living in La Jolla, and dining at The French Laundry (none of which I do, by the way).  What Other People Think has always been a huge driver of worth.

            So what about wine?  Obviously it’s been around for thousands of years and is an integral component in the lives of millions around the globe.  It’s certainly as subject to the sliding scales of worth as any other commodity.  Even now, with the economy lurching its way through an uncertain recovery and most wine drinkers continuing to focus on price tags under $20, we still see those who look for prestige bottles.  The oomph may come from a big name, a big score, or a big price – sometimes all three! – but status can be as big a part of the equation with wine as with anything else.

            Sometimes, though, it’s mainly about how unbelievably, magnificently freakin’ good some of these wines can be!  Just yesterday, for example, Bill and I had the great privilege of tasting the 2005 Penfolds Grange (thank you, Michelle Smith of the Treasury Wine Estates Division of Southern Wine & Spirits!).  This wine retails for hundreds of dollars a bottle.  It is among the richest, most delicious, most amazingly complex wines I have tasted, with aromas and flavors from every exciting angle of the sensory spectrum.  But it retails for hundreds of dollars a bottle.  So, is it worth it?  I’ve been thinking about this question since I tasted it.  Most folks will say hell no.  Very few will say yes.  I guess I’m still at maybe.  But, man, it was good.