Sounds like a quote from the heady days of 2006, but it's a reality once again in 2010.
 
Despite the global meltdown of the past few years, Asia, particularly Hong Kong, has become the place where most of the world's finest and rarest wines are sold. Asia is seeing record setting prices at auction and retail. Prices for Latour, Mouton, Margaux, Haut Brion and especially Lafite Rothschild are rising at a pace that is hard to keep up with, even for professionals like myself.
 
Last week three bottles of 1869 Lafite Rothschild (Chateau Stock) sold at Sothbys HK for over $700,000 US dollars. There seemed to be an extreme premium for the Chateau Stock wines that went up for sale, sometimes fetching up to three times the price of retail. Can you believe that 1982 Lafite Rothschild, a wine that we sold as futures for $40 per bottle, is now trading for over $50,000 per case? The Chateau Stock case at the HK auction last week sold for $136,000 US, which probably is a fluke considering its general availability at the $50k price.
 
Anyway, the point that should be taken is that Asia has enough money and wine-buying clients to not only raise prices to records, but to single handedly re-price the rare wine market.
 
Don't worry, for now Asia is only interested in about 20 of the world's top wines. That list is going to grow, and expect some of the wines that you know, love and buy to become priced out of your price range in the upcoming decade.