SALT LAKE CITY — The wines are so expensive and so rare, you don't even dare pick up the bottle.
Bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines were placed on a table inside the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services' warehouse. They were being shown off to FOX 13 News ahead of a drawing for the rare product on Dec. 5.
The rare wines from the Burgundy region of France sell for as much as $6,000 in other states, but thanks to a quirk in Utah liquor laws they are being offered here for $800 to $2,200 a bottle. That's because the free market doesn't really apply when it comes to a liquor control state like Utah. State law mandates alcoholic beverages be sold at cost plus an 88% markup. But that same law means that bottles that sell for much more outside Utah sells for cheaper here.
"This is one way we can point to the benefit of the control state paradigm and what our markup is," DABS Executive Director Tiffany Clason told FOX 13 News. "Because in any of our drawings, be it these wines or Pappy's, other brown spirits, the consumer really gets a bargain, a really great deal by paying less for these really rare and high demand products."
Because these bottles are so rare, the DABS offers them up for the lower price through it's "rare high demand products opportunity drawing." It's not a lottery (because those are illegal in Utah) but a randomized drawing among DABS customers who register on the agency's website and agree to pay the discounted cost for the bottle should they win.
The agency has done similar for rare whiskeys and bourbons like the highly-coveted Pappy Van Winkle.
You can sign up for the drawing until 11:59pm on Dec. 5 by clicking here.
