It
is the nature of the rise and fall of civilizations that the elites
of the rising civilization by their very nature impose their
aesthetics on the world. And that the aesthetics of the elites of
the fading power must accommodate themselves to their new and
impoverished position. That is the way of the world.
Therefore
it is not a surprise that China's influence in the world in a variety
of different areas of culture becomes more manifest as the years go
by. Independent of that, America's influence could be predicted to
decline, at least as far as its former middle class goes. The
American elite will still go forward buying their racecars and
whores, but the former middle class, now impoverished, must scale
back its ambitions to consume to fit its new role in the globalized
economy.
I
am aware of four specific examples of this rise in Chinese influence,
but two of these I only heard about in the last week. The four are:
the impact of Chinese purchases for investment on real estate prices
in North America, the role of the Chinese in the final extinction of
the various remaining species of elephant, and the two surprises are
the role of the Chinese in certain bizarre changes in elite car
design in Germany and the spectacular changes in the prices of
certain genre of French wine, in particular certain name brands from
Bordeaux.
To
get the first three out of the way so we can concentrate on wine, the
following seems to be true. First, that the purchase of real estate
for investment purposes and for bragging rights is resulting in a
sustained demand and increased prices for real estate in certain
prestige areas such as Manhattan, already expensive, and results in
properties owned by the Chinese but not lived in. Second, and most
unfortunate, Chinese traditional medicine has always made use of the
ground up body parts of various endangered species. One in
particular, the elephant, is being targetted for its ivory and this
is leading to a catastrophic decrease in the remaining populations.
The Chinese will probably be responsible for the final extinction of
this wonderful animal after centuries of abuse by other cultures.
The third, and actually quite odd, example is that (of course) the
demand for elite automobiles has exploded in the Worker's Paradise
and Mercedes in particular has been catering to this demand by
changing their formerly understated and discreet design and making it
wildly tacky, ostentatious, and even stupid in order to pander to the
nouveau riche of Communist China.
Two
of these examples are trivial, but the extinction of the elephant is
a tragedy.
The
fourth example was also a surprise to me because I have not been able
to indulge my taste in French wine for many years. But I was going
to a friend's house on Thanksgiving and I thought that this would be
an opportunity to do so. What a surprise! Oh my!
To
digress, I am a wine snob. When living in NY, one of my roommates
was a Flamenco guitarist, and since you can not make a living at
that, he also worked in the wine trade. I had him teach a class in
the wines of Europe, and while we ventured into Italy and Spain, we
mostly concentrated on red wine from the Bordeaux area. Wines in
this area are highly esteemed by many groups and have been for many
hundreds of years. But in one year in particular, the French
government worked with industry to bring order out of chaos in
conjunction with the planning for the Exposition of 1855, and at the
request of Napoleon III, and as a result created the famous
Classification of 1855 which ranked French wine from the Bordeaux
region into five classes: the so called first growth wines through
the fifth growth.
This
classification has been very stable over the years with very few
changes since 1855 and has in a sense become a self-fulfilling
prophecy. A first and second growth winery will by definition be
worth more, get more investment, and therefore be able to afford to
make the changes necessary to maintain or increase the quality of
their product.
Among
the wines of this classification are some of the most famous wines in
the world, including the wines of Chateau Lafite Rothschid, Chateau
Mouton, Chateau Margaux and so forth. These wines of course
commanded a premium price.
But
there were some good deals among these classified Bordeaux and not
all the great wines of France were out of reach of even the most
modest of middle class American as long as they did a little homework
to understand which vintages were worth buying and could plan a bit
in advance. The more willing one was to plan in advance and make a
modest investment, the better one would do.
Well
those days are over, at least for certain name Chateau, and it is all
because the Chinese have gone a little nutty, so some say, over
certain of these wines.
For
example, a well known and esteemed wine was the third wine of the
Chateau Lafite Rothchild. This wine, the Carraudes de Lafite, was
deliberately styled to be a well balanced, very drinkable wine, ready
to drink as soon as it was on the market. Made from the vines that
were not yet ready to contribute to the great vines of the estate,
this wine was a fabulous wine that did not have to be kept for
decades to be drinkable, would never be the very best wine, but was
better than nearly any other red wine at a reasonable price. In the
absence of the availability of something that has been around 20
years and commanding a high price at the last minute, one could pick
up this wine of nearly any vintage and be very happy and pay no more
than $35.00 a bottle.
So
I look this wine up on the Internet and find it listed for $350.00 or
so. I am confused. I wonder, maybe this is for a case (12 bottles)
and not a single bottle?
No,
the Chinese have gone nutty for Lafite and several other name brands
and prices have gone up a factor of 10 or 20 in just the last few years. A better bottle of wine which formerly went for a few hundred dollars, still expensive by any measure, will now sell for over $1,000 or even $2,000 a bottle.
Not
all wines have exploded this much in price, but in general the wines
of the Bordeaux region are for the most part, out of reach.
I
just want to thank the Chinese for this little exercise in free
market economics in the service of the rich and hope that they find
the opportunity to choke on their wine and die.
Thanks
again guys for reminding me how little I count for in the world.
I
appreciate it.
____________________________________________________
Classification
of 1855
Chateau
Lafite Rothschild
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