The inspiration for this post came from, where I suspect many future posts will come from, a comment fight on the Internet. I try to avoid these things, but if something I'm passionate about comes up... well, I'd need two bouncers to hold me back. I'm not going to lie, part of the idea for this blog was for me to have a place to formulate my comment debates into a well thought out essays that drives my point home.
This particular discussion started when a friend posted an article about how
Charles Shaw (2 Buck Chuck) won double gold at a wine competition proving once and for all that cheap wine is as good as or better than expensive wine.
My stance?
First, the article is eight years old and discussing a ten year old wine, so I felt it to be a bit outdated (and we'll go into further detail about the significance of the years). Additionally, I feel that its possible for wine to be
too cheap. That doesn't mean you need to spend a small fortune on twenty year old wines imported directly from the heart of France. There are a lot of really great wines in the $10 range and those few extra dollars can make a huge difference in the quality of the wine you end up buying.
My Background
I'm not going to say I'm some sort of wine expert. I like to refer to myself as a "wine connoisseur-in-training." I love wine, I'm a member of two wine clubs, I have a few wine books and I read several wine articles. I'm not an expert, I have never taken a class. I know what I know about wine from buying and drinking a lot of wine.
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| My credentials |
Economics, on the other hand, is a different story. I have a Bachelor's degree in Economics from a leading university, I've worked in finance for four years, I read economics books for fun, and I constantly calculate my
opportunity cost (
opportunity cost is what you have to give up in order to do/buy something. For example, I think of how many hours I would need to work to pay for something I'm going to buy vs. how many hours I'll enjoy it).
So here is an Economist who loves wine, telling you a little but more about what it is you're paying for. I got a little carried away with this post so the rest is after the jump!
