On Friday, July 26, 2013 3:01:50 PM UTC-5, lleichtman wrote:
> I have wondered what prompts folks to buy expensive bottles of wine and what do you consider expensive. We are getting to the point that we're not sure of storing wine for 20 years as we never get to drink it. Yes, more wineries are making wine for earlier drinking time but there are still plenty of expensive bottles that need a long time.
>
> What does this group consider to be a reasonable upper range of price for near term drinking?

I still have a fairly large collection, so I seldom buy wines for long aging anymore. Of course I have to replace a few whites not meant for long aging. Very rarely I buy a bottle of rare wine that I could not find earlier and wish to taste at least once while I still can. Such wines have included very old Constantia, very old Tokaji Essencia back to the early 1800's,vintage Madeira back to the early 1800's etc. However many of these can no longer be found or are now extremely expensive,so I have bought nearly none of such wines in the last decade. I do admit that I have paid over US$ 1000 for a very rare wine in the past, but I also bought 1st growth Bordeaux from 1961 and 1959 for about $11 to 30 not long after release. I have drunk or discarded most of my mistakes, so most of the older wines I have left are still very good.