5 Norwegian winterdays in a tent for a DRC at 3.900 Euros by Wine Monopoly in Norway.
Litangen
It is time for the big annual event in Norway’s wine market. The public retail monopoly launches Bourgogne on 1st February. People are queuing up in the cold winter. Some put up their tents days before, as last year when the first settlers had five nights outside the wine-shop in Aker Brygge in Oslo.
The golden reward was a 2013 DRC for about Euros 3,900. On the Echezeaux you could make 350 per cent profit. Not strange that fathers were paying their sons to do the shopping and students announced their queuing services. You need real efforts for the possession of a Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, a Lafon, Leflaive or Rousseau, no matter if you talk savings or endurance.
They say it is the modest and limited margin of the retail monopoly that makes the bargain, but it is also a matter of ties between producer and distribution. In the case of these Bourgogne instances it seems well taken care of. This Norwegian launch must be as close as you ever get to an ex-cellar price from DRC? However, these price levels are not the normal ones. You really have to use hours in assessing the catalogue to find items that could go in your cellar for a reasonable price.
Still it happens, and you don’t need to tent outside the shop to get hold of it. In Arendal Vintners we do the assessment as a service for our collectors!