Although many will admit that life is too short to have cheap wine, only few will not zip up their wallets when it’s time to shell out the obscene cash that buys really expensive wine - that fabulous indicator that tells the collector from the cognoscente.

Thanks to them, wine libraries are flourishing. At M, Grand Hyatt, a bottle of great quality Château Lafite Rothschild, 1er Grand Cru Classé, Pauillac (Red wine from France) will leave you poorer by Rs 1,89,000. A bottle of Sauternes, Château d’Yquem, 1er Grand Cru Classé is a bit economical at Rs 90,000. Enough to make a majority of us choke even before the first sip but some don’t mind drinking their nights away.

Kavita Chougule, a wine lover and producer (her surname rings a bell as Chateau Indage, plus Tiger Hill are her brands) is a sucker for fine wine. On her travels, she has been to the best chateaus in the word. Needless to say, she’s tasted some of the most exclusive wines. From France, to South Africa’s Stellenbosch region near Cape Town to Thatch Vineyards’ Broken Earth wines, she’s been everywhere. “I loved the Villafonte Series M, an exclusive limited edition wine from south Africa. It costs Rs 15,000 in a shop and probably three times as much in a restaurant; it’s super exclusive.” For Chougule, it’s not a question of money but exclusivity.

“Last week, we sold eight bottles of some fine Italian Massetto. At Rs 40,000 a bottle, it’s doing good business,” says Craig W Wedge, wine consultant at J W Marriott. Wedge, however, maintains that it’s the Côte-Rôtie from Gugiel which he is proud of. “The Wine Spectator has graded it at 99.9 per cent. It’s a really fine French wine of which only 250 cases are produced everywhere. Another one is the DRC (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) from Burgundy. It comes from a half-acre vineyard and is very exclusive. It is priced at Rs 1,86,000,” he explains.

What makes wine so expensive? Wedge says, “It’s the interplay of pedigree, the vineyards and the region, the grape variety and, of course, mother nature. However, expensive doesn’t always translate to exclusive. There are some people who drink less but drink better. Others drink just about anything. So, it’s an individual thing.”

Bartending expert, Shatbi Basu remembers having exorbitant wine at a vineyard in Bordeaux some time ago. However, she can’t understand what the fuss is about? “I don’t know how good an idea it is to have such costly wines in India. Firstly, they are not kept properly. Secondly, in most bars, great wine is ill-handled by inexperienced people. Thirdly, excessive taxes really take the fun out of drinking.”