How To Justify Spending $300 on a Wine

Posted by Tom Wark on Apr 11, 2006

While there are many people who spend $300 or more on a bottle of wine, most of us don’t. Most of us don’t get close to spendiing this kind of money on wine. If you are like my bride, she has trouble getting past the barrier that forces her to ask, "What else could I use this $300 for?"

What’s needed is a good old fashion JUSTIFICATION for spending $300 on a bottle of juice. So, as a public service, I offer a set of justifications I used for spending $300 on a bottle of wine. Feel free to use any of these fine justifications with any alterations you deem necessary:

1. It’s my birthday year wine and I want something special when I turn 50.
This justification can be altered to work for nearly any wine, ie: "Hey, it’s my 40th birthday and I want a wine to remind me when I was younger so I need this 1986 Latour"….see!!

2. If I don’t buy it now it will only get more expensive
This justification works fine. But beware, if you use it to justify the purchase to a spouse you put yourself in a corner that forces you to wait to drink the wine until it appreciates more in value

3. Sure it was $300, but it was actually a great deal
This is a great justification for a spur of the moment purchase. However, beware: this justification sounds a bit like, "Buy 10 boxes of Tide and get one free" (who really needs 11 boxes of Tide in their home

4. I got a 10% discount on the Wine
This is good. You are a savvy shopper.

5. I’ve been working hard and deserve a little reward
Another outstanding justification. But, again, beware. There may be someone in the family who has been working just as hard or harder and you may end up with a pair of $300 shoes on the other side of the closet.

For the record, the bottle was a 1963 Fonseca, a great bottle of Vintage Port. And for the record, I really have been working hard of late.