Does a $10,000 Bottle of Wine Taste Like $10,000?
Does a $10,000 Bottle of Wine Taste Like $10,000?
Jan 26, 2012 6
(FoodNetwork) - When you write about wine, you sometimes get to taste the really expensive stuff. I’m not talking filet mignon or even white-truffle expensive. I’m talking splurging like Diddy-in-a-diamond-hoodie-on-a-yacht expensive.
When a collector shares one of these bottles with me, friends later ask, “Does it taste like [insert obscenely expensive price]?”
The honest answer: It doesn’t, at least not to the untrained palate, and probably not even to most trained palates.
The lesson here is that while the price is often reflective of a wine’s quality, it is so only up to a point. And even when a wine is of high quality — from the best grapes handled by the most talented hands — it doesn’t mean that you are going to automatically taste its full price. In fact, some of the most-prized bottles can evoke qualities — think soy sauce or pencil lead or even a barnyard in August — that are off-putting to the uninitiated.
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