Bordeaux and Baseball Cards

Thursday, January 7, 2010


When I was a kid, me and my friends would get on our bikes and ride over to Sonny's Baseball Card Shop in Tempe, Arizona.  We'd spend hours there talking about upcoming prospects and getting a jump on cards that were sure to be worth a fortune in the future.  Each month when the Beckett price guide arrived announcing changes in card prices I'd count my paper gains. It was pure folly, but I was convinced I was making a wise investment.

Given that background, I see so many parallels between wine and baseball cards- or fantasy baseball for that matter.  Baseball seasons are vintages in wine.  Rookie cards are hot new releases of cult Cabs.  The Beckett Price Guide is eerily similar to Wine Spectator. I could go on and on.

The height of the sport card industry in the late '80s signaled the peak of overproduction and led to widespread devaluation of a generation of baseball cards.  I see striking similarities between  that peak and what the wine trade is going through right now.  2009 is either going to be remembered as the year of the deal -or- the beginning of a long steady decline.

Recently, I've been doing a bit of writing for a new online publication called Corkd Content- a new component of the wine tasting note sharing site Corkd.com.  My latest contribution goes further into this Bordeaux and Baseball Card analogy.  I'd love it if you headed over and had a look:

Is 2005 Bordeaux the "1990 Score Factory Set" of the Wine World?

Thanks for Rob Sobon from Sobon Family Winery for sharing his thoughts on this piece prior to publication.  There are more baseball and wine fans out there than you realize!

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