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Comment by imgabe | Hacker News Reader

A $1000 bottle of wine is going to be from a specific year, from a specific vineyard. There's naturally a limited supply, so price will increase with demand like any collectible.

A wooden knob is not unique and anyone could manufacture an unlimited amount at low cost.

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Oh, clearly you haven’t dug deeply enough. The wood is handchosen to minimize resonance, handcrafted by an artisan coming from a generation of Italian woodworkers, etc etc. Exactly the same as wine.

There is no natural limit on bottles that are labeled with a specific year and a specific vineyard. The only way to know the label is genuine is the stringent chain-of-custody requirements that have become normal in the world of expensive artwork under pressure from forgeries. As far as I know, those are not yet the norm for wine.

I wouldn't say they are the norm, but they're certainly expected by any re-seller (auction house, retailer, restaurant) when dealing with the highest echelon of wine (1st Growth Bordeaux, Premier Cru Burgundy, Vintage Champagne) they'll also expect a description of the storage conditions over time.

See the documentary Sour Grapes to understand how this system was undermined and trust evaporated from the industry.

I've had a $400 bottle of scotch (37 yr McCallan over 15 years ago), and it was significantly better than the 18 yr old you could get at the time for about $120. Was it worth it? Yes-once. I wouldn't do it again, but I enjoyed that bottle over a 3 month period.

So not a blind test at all then, and just as easily biased as the expensive wooden knob that subjectively was so much better.

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