The more things change…
…the more they remain the same. The old adage rings true time and time again. For relaxation and pleasure, I read a lot of old history books about the vineyards and wine business in 18th & 19th century Burgundy (yes, I’m a geek, I know.) I’m currently in the middle of a book recounting the history of Clos Vougeot, during the time it was a monopole of the Ouvrard family (up until the late 1800s.) It is fascinating to see business and economic cycles repeating themselves, and to see how similar things really are to what has been happening in modern history.
Monsieur Ouvrard père seems to have been a bit of a shady financier, part-time arms dealer, and private equity banker – who apparently put together his deal to buy the 125-acre Clos Vougeot (Burgundy’s most famous vineyard at the time, along with Romanée-Conti) with a byzantine assembly of loans, promissory notes, bonds, and other “creative” financial instruments. There’s no evidence that he actually put any cash into it at all. Sound familiar?
Burgundy went through about 40 years of hard times from the 1870s thru the 1930s – wars, horrible vintages, economic collapse, you name it. The equivalent of our modern day mortgage-backed securities wheelers and dealers went through their version of the wringer back then too. Vineyard owners saw their expenses outstrip their incomes in the lean times, and only the deep-pocket players were able to stay in the game. Wineries had vintages stacked up in their cellars that they couldn’t sell at any price. Then the speculators came in and bought properties at pennies on the dollar, and sold them off in smaller parcels at huge profits at the first signs of an upturn. Sound familiar?
La plus ça change, la plus c’est la même chose indeed.
On another subject entirely – I’m looking forward to seeing you here this weekend for our Memorial Day Wknd. Open House, 11-5 Saturday and Sunday – with a nice line-up of Pinots and Burgs to pour, and a killer artisan jewelry show & sale too. Stop by if you can!
