Nummy
Nuh-unh!
Beayatch sold me my Harby SHL5+'s some years back.
In the interim he became some sort of freakish online PS audio Critic/Hater/Fan. To this day cannot get my head around it.
Actually quite a fan, I’ve bought as much new PS Audio kit than anything else, but very frustrated that PS Audio has taken so long to get around to streaming and Paul’s dislike of mains conditioning which, if PS Audio set their minds to it, could probably do rather well.
Funny to be thought of as English, I feel very un-English, far more European, and when Little Lord Fauntleroy was written my ancestors were probably digging up potatoes in Belarus.
Wine is a massive part of European culture and we’ve travelled a lot in France and Italy for food and wine. If I was British I’d love whisky, but I hate the stuff. I do like gin, a bit too much.
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Big fan of certain vintages of Ramey Cab. Sometimes a winery just hits it out of the park one year and 2015 is that year for Ramey:
2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Annum, Napa Valley - Ramey Wine Cellars
The unusual weather Ramey describes for this vintage led to an amazing Cab. Not easy to find on the shelf locally here in Chicago at all, even at a mega liquor store like Binny’s Beverage. But when I find Ramey I grab a case if available.
This stuff:
That’s about $800 for 6 bottles. For that money I could take @badbeef out for breakfast at a half-decent restaurant.
Just for reference, the really rather nice one I had last week was about $100 for 6 bottles.
https://www.majestic.co.uk/wines/bread-and-butter-cabernet-sauvignon-18756
My problem is I find it much easier to relate to a wine if I’ve been to the winery or region, and I’ve never been to Napa. Half of it is in the memory.
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Have you come across this?
https://www.majestic.co.uk/wines/chronic-sir-real-cab-18743
Seems highly rated and there’s some at a local store.
Although I no longer live there, I’m a Northern California native. I grew up with Napa a couple of hours away. Yes, I am partial to Napa wines for the reason you state, I know the region and the wines it produces. As for price, I’ll admit I’m never going to pay 1000 USD for a single bottle but I will definitely pay upwards of $800 for a case of a wine I’m extremely fond of. Wines are a highly personal thing. I’m also a fine art collector. As is the case with fine art, what those of us who like fine wines are willing to pay is a personal judgment of value.
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Perfectly reasonable.
The Ramey Cabernet is $54.00 at Total Wine and in stock. I will pick up a bottle or two.
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I had a fine art dealer friend years ago who asked me to join his business at one point. Normally when someone comes for dinner they bring a bottle of wine. He used to bring a case. He once brought a case of Tenuta Sassicaia 1981, which was very nice. I got the impression from my business discussions with him that art dealing was a one horse race. Didn’t do him any good, he’s bankrupt and being chased by the FBI. He did try to get me to buy art and I probably lost out big-time, but it was a valuable lesson. I buy for enjoyment rather than perceived value. To some degree the same could be said for high-end audio.
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Very good advice for lots of things that I do.
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No being made of money, as someone here likes to think, and with ready access to lots of live performance ex-pandemic, for a long time I’ve assessed audio in terms the number of tickets it represents. It brings the whole audio thing back to reality. For me, I max out on wine at about $40 a bottle at home, typically $15 to $20, perhaps double that in a restaurant. To some that is cents and dimes, to others a fortune. I do wonder if there are people who won’t drink a bottle of wine because it cost $10. It translates to audio, some parts of the industry always pushing people to want more and spend more. If you want a brilliant examination of the psychology of acquiring, collecting, perceived value and greed, you might like this remarkable documentary.
How right you are! I have been asked many times how I decided to acquire the works I have in my collection. My answer has consistently been never purchase a work of art as an investment. Perhaps that makes sense for corporations, museums, other institutions with pockets so deep they can afford to acquire bona fide masterpieces. For everyone else, if you aren’t sure whether after you hang it you’re going to love looking at it every day, take a pass. That’s why I viewed the latest addition to my collection, a mid-20th century abstract oil, over a span of around 3 months to the occasional annoyance of my dealer. It had to be right before I wrote the check to acquire it.
We do the same, on a much smaller scale. We’re doing a big rebuild and did a massive declutter this weekend and took it all to a professional eBay seller. We should get a fair amount of money and rather than put it to the build I told the wife to buy a piece of art of her choice.
I like glass and I think I’ll get a piece as well. There is a great dealer
https://londonglassblowing.co.uk
just up from our best great contemporary art gallery.
https://whitecube.com
It’s not Chiuli, but that’s not the point.
A good Côtes du Rhône: Oratorio, from Ogier.
Very affordable, but I don’t know if you can find it in the US.
You can find both the Crozes-Hermitage and the Gigondas in US.
We’ve been collecting wines for well over 20 years (did I just age myself?!) and one hidden gem is Acorn Winery in Healdsburg, CA. Look up their Cab Franc or Sangiovese. Very reasonable and extremely good.
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Even better !
Had a court case many years ago involving someone who purchased a portrait “by” Sir Joshua Reynolds with an unsure provenance at considerably below the market value of a Reynolds. He then donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art & deducted the market value of a Reynolds. The Met examined it & returned it to him as a fake. The owner of the painting sued The Met. During the trial the defense flew in an expert from Britain to examine it. A large canvas, we went to the owner’s home for him examine the painting which was hung above a chair. When he was offered that seat he declined. When asked why he pointed and replied, “Because I loathe that painting”. His finding: Tilly Kettle not a Reynolds. Defense won the case.
So - you’re like, 35? 
No, it’s the wine (some of it) that you have to age 
