Buy today for delivery in 2011.

Photo credit: Mshades

 I'm talking about Bordeaux Futures here. The 2009 vintage has been recently reviewed by the critics and praised for perhaps being the best vintage in decades if not the century. When reviews like this come in many wine enthusiasts and collectors buy "futures." Basically, you agree to buy a certain allotment of wine at an agreed upon price for delivery at a future date. The advantage of doing this is you're expecting the value of the wine to increase over the next year, so you'll get this sought after wine at a much lower price.

When you take delivery you have the option of selling it at the now increased price, drinking it, or holding it for years to come and watch the price increase further. However, there's always the risk that the wine will turn in the bottle, critics could change their mind or Bordeaux could become the new white zinfandel (highly unlikely), therefore decreasing the price to below what you paid for it.

Now, I confess, I've never purchased futures of anything, let alone wine. Heck, I wouldn't know how. But today any of us can do this through Wine.com. Just sign up and when they get word from the Chateaus, they'll send out an email with the price and take orders on a first come, first served basis. They make no mentions on minimums, etc., but if you're interested is some of the more popular Chateaus, I'd be prepared to act quickly.

I'd also be prepared with my check book. I doubt this will be cheap.

Here's a link to Wine.com. I'm going to sign up for the emails and will report on what I see happening. This should be interesting.