As with db rifles, a wine is often worth what you can get for it. What does Romanee-Conti go for these days - $6,000-plus for a bottle of the last-released vintage?

I don't suppose I'll ever taste any but I once looked over the sandstone vineyard walls and through their winery's gate. I then went across the street and bought a premier cru grown 100 yards up the hill in a vineyard that bordered Richebourg, for the grand sum of 25 euros. God knows what the difference is but if terroir means anything, there shouldn't be much in it. Either it's the law of diminishing returns at work or, once more, the emperor has no clothes.

Cheers
- Paul