Not everyone can understand it, but: A lot of money can be spent on wine. And if you have a little patience, you can also earn a lot of money with wine. Mark Paulson found that out in a curious way. For him, a bottle of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche variety became a lucrative investment – albeit not entirely intentional.
The American told the Washington Post that he bought the 1971 vintage bottle in the late 1970s. A wine merchant in San Francisco had sold them to him. Paulson wasn’t a layman, he was well versed in crying. He was aware that it was a special drop. Nevertheless, he stored the bottle in his cellar – and forgot about it for decades.
His interest in expensive wines had waned soon after the purchase, as he could not really afford this hobby as a painter with four children in the long term. He wanted to keep La Tâche for the wedding of his daughter, who was born in 1984. “It just lay in the basement all these years,” the 72-year-old told the Washington Post. “I never thought much about it.”
But since good wine is known to only get better (and more valuable) with time, that was not a problem. That’s when Paulson learned that a bottle of the vintage sold for $80,000. It dawned on Paulson what treasure he had been storing in his basement all along. He had paid $250 for the bottle at the time. Now he has sold it at auction for more than 106,000 US dollars (equivalent to 98,000 euros).
The wine lover took in more than 400 times as much as he had spent more than 40 years ago. But what made the wine so valuable? According to experts, La Tâche is basically one of the highest quality wines in the world. Paulson was also lucky enough to have a very special bottle: a Jeroboam with a volume of three liters. Normal wine bottles only hold 0.75 litres. The wine was not only very good, but also extremely rare in its packaging.
Mark Paulson should be glad not to have drunk the high-quality wine himself – he and his family want to use the sale price to pay for repair work on their house and to go on vacation, among other things.
Quellen: “Washington Post” / “San Francisco Chronicle” / Bonhams
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