Reading the Echo article about a customer at a restaurant who paid several thousand pounds for two bottles of wine reminded me of an incident in my life.

For the five top houses of Bordeaux this would be cheap, depending on the year.

Between 1973 and the mid 80s merchant bankers dropped out of buying good wines because they'd had their fingers burnt. Prior to 1973 they used to pay upfront before the wine was even bottled, therefore the chateau owners had their money in the bank.

From 1973 the chateau owners had to sell their own wine. In the case of Bordeaux they had to keep it for several years, before it is worth drinking.

So they had to borrow money from the banks to keep going on.

I went to Bordeaux in 1985 with three of my customers who each spent £250,000.

They paid £915 a case for wine from the top five vineyards, which are known as the big five.

Towards the end of the eighties this wine was fetching several thous- ands of pounds per case, which meant my three customers became multi-millionaires from the wine alone.

A few days after our return from the trip my associate in Bordeaux rang me with the offer that if we could raise £4million we could corner the market. The price would have been £185 per case. Unfortunately, we were unable to take him up on his offer.

Also, in this period another Essex man who was very fond of Chateau Petreus bought a large amount in the seventies and early eighties. This alone would have made him a millionaire.

Most restaurants can only buy the odd bottle because of the price.

Derek J Renouf
Hall Road
Hockley