Hawking The Grand Crus
In Wine News today, we’re hearing about the extent of the recession’s effects felt across the pond in France.
According to this article at YahooNews, Parisians that are desperate for cash have used their personal prized bottles of fine wine to secure loans and cash to help weather the economic storm.
Credit Municipal de Paris, which claims to be Paris’ oldest financial institution (it was founded in 1777 by Louis XVI), has seen loan requests climb 30% from a year ago.
Most of the borrowers are just taking the cash rather than dealing with loans, interest and paybacks. This Tuesday, the bank auctioned off 2,500 bottles in order to raise $200,000 Euros ($273,000) to give to the borrowers.
According to the article, “Credit municipal paid half-price for the wines, but sold them at market rates or better… The auction saw a single bottle of 1982 Chateau Petrus go for euro1,950 ($2,660), a five-bottle box of 1990 Chateaux Margaux fetch euro2,400 ($3,270) and six bottles of 2000 Chateau Lafite Rothschild sell for almost euro4,000 ($5,450) — prices that might convince more than a few wine-hoarders that now is the right time to sell.”
Again, the full article can be read at YahooNews.com.
