“IS IT ACTUALLY possible to spend too much on wine? Oddly enough, there was more media coverage of Mr. Depp’s outsized wine budget than the creation of a cannon to catapult a dead writer’s remains into the air. Was that because his alleged monthly outlay on wine far exceeded what most people consider reasonable, or because no one knew the value of a customized cannon? Then again, was Jack Sparrow’s wine budget really so big after all? Some wine collectors I talked to didn’t seem to think so. Brad Goldstein, a spokesman for Bill Koch, the billionaire commodities investor and wine collector, was decidedly underwhelmed by Mr. Depp’s expenditures. “Bill Koch sold a case of 1945 Mouton Rothschild at auction last year for $400,000,” he said. If Mr. Depp’s agents were “trying to show excess, they’re in the wrong place,” added Mr. Goldstein, noting it costs a lot more than $30,000 a month to “seriously” invest in first-growth Bordeaux. Mr. Depp spent much more than $30,000 a month, mostly on first-growth Bordeaux, when he was a client at the Beverly Hills Wine Merchant many years ago, according to proprietor Dennis Overstreet. Mr. Waldman said, “Mr. Depp is a sophisticated investor in first-growth Bordeaux which has turned out to be a great asset class over the years.” Although Mr. Overstreet works with many big Hollywood names, he said he now sells some of his most impressive bottles to foreign businessmen. He recently sold a Melchior (18-liter bottle) of 2005 Château Cheval Blanc to a prominent Asian businessman for $65,000. The cult Napa Valley Cabernet Screaming Eagle is a favorite among Russian collectors, added Mr. Overstreet. A magnum of the 2010 vintage costs $10,000. “It’s not about the money but the prestige,” he said, adding perhaps unnecessarily: “Money isn’t an issue.””
