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Thursday, April 4, 2013

The marketplace value of Jancis, Galloni, Asimov, McInerney and Matthews

Dinner with Galloni: more valuable than dinner with Jancis?
There's a charity auction for victims of Hurricane Sandy going on right now through Sunday afternoon, and that's a good deed and you should consider buying some wine. But what's really interesting is the price of dinner.

Four wine writers -- Jancis Robinson, Antonio Galloni, Eric Asimov and Thomas Matthews -- volunteered to have dinner with guests for the highest bidder.

In a different category ("The Good Life"), there's also a dinner with Jay McInerney.

This is a marketplace decision on which critic is what, most interesting? Most influential? Has the best table manners?

There is only a little variation in the offers. All five meals are at Danny Meyer restaurants, and I'm not a New Yorker so I don't have an opinion on which is best. With Robinson you get a bonus wine writer, Nick Lander.

You're allowed to bring five guests with Robinson, Matthews or Galloni; three guests with McInerney; but only one with Asimov. That's a big difference but I'm not sure the impact on pricing is predictable: fewer guests will depress group bids, but the dinner with Asimov will be the most intimate.

So who do you think will attract the highest bid?


When I first looked on Thursday morning, the bid for Galloni was $3,500 -- and the combined price of dinner with Asimov, Matthews (from Wine Spectator) and Robinson was $3,400. McInerney was in a solid second place to Galloni at $2,700.

Bidding ends Sunday night. Follow the action (or bid yourself, there are some nice wines on auction) here.

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5 comments:

  1. David WhiteApril 4, 2013 at 8:49 AM

    I wonder if bidders are factoring in the wine they'll likely drink -- I'd guess that the NY-based writers could dip into their collections and bring some interesting wines to explore. And I'd guess that a guy like McInerney has trophies, while a guy like Asimov probably has super interesting, esoteric wines.
    (When Parker donates dinners to charity, he apparently always rolls into dinner with a solid case of crazy wines.)

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  2. W. Blake GrayApril 4, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    David: That's a very good point. In his book, Asimov says he doesn't have a cellar.

    I'd be terrified to think what people would bid for dinner with me. They might not even pay for dinner.

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  3. RobertApril 4, 2013 at 5:06 PM

    Well Asimov better stop by the local Bev'Mo and pick something up! Would be intersting if Gary Vaynerchuk was included. I know he doesn't have the clout, but certainly would be entertaining.

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  4. W. Blake GrayApril 4, 2013 at 5:35 PM

    What's Gary up to these days, since he stopped the videocast? I know he still owns a wine shop, but I think he's a social media consultant now.

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  5. AnonymousApril 8, 2013 at 10:18 AM

    This is really fascinating. We all spend a lot of time discussing the subjective value of wine, but I've never had occasion to consider the subjective value of wine WRITERS.
    I'd give a great deal to have dinner with Eric Asimov - I'd even bring the wine myself. ;)

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