"Tom S" > wrote:

>> There is no bulk wine shipping outside ["Champagne viticole"
>> area], for the simple reason that champagne grape prices are
>> just about the highest in the world.

> Really? I'm not saying it isn't true - I just find it hard to
> believe, Michael. Can you give an idea how high that would be?

Well in the pre-Euro era I knew of something like FRF 30 per
kilogram, which is something like EUR 4.50 or USD 6.00 per kg. But
that was years ago, and prices have not gone down, on the
contrary.

The only source I found (youngest price 1997) sets the record at
32 francs for the 1990 pinot noir.

> Just off the top of my head, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was
> selling for ~$5K/ton this year. Of course that wouldn't be from
> a prestigious vineyard
>
> Naturally this will involve another exercise in metric units and
> currency conversion. ;^)

I can't even find the exact amount of what a "ton" is in metric.
But whether "long" or "short" ton, the difference to a metric ton
is less than 2 percent - which makes Napa Valley Cabernet now 20
percent cheaper than champagne back in 1990 [1].

[1] Not quite true, in fact, since only grapes from grand cru
(= 100%) villages would get the full price; grapes from lesser
villages achieve their prices according to their place on the
"échelle des crus", the local classifiaction. Every village in the
champagne viticole is classified on a scale between 80 and 100 per
cent.