What Makes A Wine Crazy-Expensive?

http://images.askmen.com/fine_living...9888-flash.jpg
When orderingoff a wine menu, most people usually stick to the cheaper half of the price spectrum.In fact, let’s be honest, most of you rarely even glance to the bottom of the winelist at the priciest bottles. But that doesn’t mean you’re not curious.From time to time you may stumble upon a few exceptional bottles at a colossalprice and wonder how it’s possible that fermented grapes could be worth upward of athousand dollars.Let’s take a look into what drives these rarities intothe four-figure bracket. Sometimes a thousand-dollar wine is worth every penny -- andsometimes it’s a huge rip-off. It’s up to you to know the difference.Be aware of where you are

Recently I was in Las Vegas and, frankly, was dumbfounded by the sight of a $58,000bottle of wine on a menu. I couldn’t quite get my mind around the idea that thissingle bottle could make me go broke. Then I remembered: I was in Vegas, wherethere’s no limit to the gluttony, but it always comes at a cost. When you walk intoa five-star restaurant, especially in Vegas, there is an underlying expectation thatyou’ll be making some hefty purchases, which explains the overblown price tags. Asthe saying goes in real estate, “location, location, location.” Sometimes agood bottle becomes an astronomically expensive one because it’s in a Park Avenuewine cellar, or a Vegas hot spot.Whether you're in your favorite hometownrestaurant or on an extravagant vacation, just remember that location can have an effecton price.So what makes a thousand-dollar wine?

Generally, very expensive wines share a few basic characteristics: They have been agedfor many years to reach their peak in quality; they are from outstanding vintages relativeto their geographicalarea; they are scarce due to minimal yearly production rates; and the producer has aworld-class reputation sought after by serious wine buyers and collectors. For example,Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in Bordeaux or Dom Perignon in Champagneare going to be more expensive than the majority of their regional counterparts, in partbecause of their superior quality and also because of their longstanding reputation.Ultimately, the price of wine is not just a function of quality but of otherfactors as well. As is often the case, a name goes a long way to send a wine into theultra-expensive range. Continue Reading

http://www.askmen.com/fine_living/wine_dine_archive/thousand-dollar-wines.html ]More...[/url]

when i worked in the cigar industry seemed like wine and cheese went hand in hand with the cigars so a few of us that were up in management had to take classes on both.it's amazing how some of these testers can take one sip blindfolded and tell you the year,make,region,country it was vinted in.not always 100% correct but off by a year or two.to me,most tasted the same.big scams i found out of people going to expensive retaurants,paying off the waiters and buying the empty expensive wine bottles,espcially if they were really old.the older the better,rewash,age the new corks in chlorine and oaxylic acid to age them then fill it with some cheaper wine for an extremely high profit margin.

most people that aren't versed in wine tasting will never tell the difference...let's get one going about cigars!thinking of getting another humidor.it's been years since i had them but i love an aged cigar,cuban of course,a small glass of port wine and some baked brie after a nice heavy dinner.nothing like it in the world...