pinot days / bordeaux blockbuster

photo from Nature 444:1051 for a book review of Molecular Gastronomy

I know I'm on a Pinot Noir kick and it's unlikely to change since the weather in high altitude Colorado is perfect for drinking pinot. And even though I can't complain about much, I've found something I can complain about. I MISSED PINOT DAYS! Yep, the 2nd annual Pinot Days in San Francisco was last weekend. I take it last year, pre-Sideways super pinot hipness, was low key. This year appears to have been a rucous. Sideways didn't help the price of good pinot either. I can report from my recent trip to Russian River valley that the best pinots are bringing high dollar. It was easy to spend $40-$60 on a vineyard specific tasty bottle of pinot. A more professional wine blog than mine can attest to the pricing first hand from tasting at Pinot Days. My take home message, when you find good pinot that will keep 3-5 years, buy it up. The price is only going keep rising.

My instructor, Philippe (yes, he's French) from a recent class I took at IWC repeatedly discussed the rising American consumption of wine. The U.S. is projected to become the largest global consumer of wine in the next 5 years. That fact not only drives the price up, but opens up the market for more winemakers to get into the business. However, more wine drinkers also means more selective and educated wine drinkers.

Good news: the quality level for high-end wines should go up with more discerning wine drinkers.
Bad news: the price will go up as more consumers are willing to pay.

For cash poor wine lovers like myself, that means I need to buy everytime I find a good deal, and hold onto to as many bottles as I can. It's a great time to be in the wine business. An even better time to be drinking wine.

And since we are talking financials, if you haven't heard already, 2005 is supposedly the best vintage in 60+ years to come out of France. Some say this blockbuster vintage may be the best vintage of all time, given that great vintages in history never had the refined technology that winemakers now use. The 2005 Bordeaux is likely going to fetch all time high prices, making it nearly impossible for someone like me to score a good bottle. I'll have to call it an "investment "and hold onto it as investment property in order to rationalize buying anything. And if I do that, will I have to sell it someday to pay for my kid's (yes, keel is slowly talking me into it) college education?

How to get some of that tasty 2005 Bordeaux that we can drink, and drink, and drink for the next 50 years? Someone give me a clue on this one, pleeeease.