Just look at the line on that chart up above. High-end red wine sales, steadily on the up and up before that unfortunate recession, appear to have returned to pre-crisis levels--and even surpassed them. Though Wine Spectator's Auction Index, which tracks the prices of 32 premier red wines in select vintages (you know, 16 Bordeaux, a handful of California Cabernet, some Tuscan wines), took a quick dive in 2009, it has now made a full recovery, hitting an all-time high in the middle of 2010. Reuters Prism Money says you should invest now. The J.-F. Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne 2000 comes in at just a little more at $2,521 per bottle at Zachys apparently, up 127 percent. Big global gains in the market have also been seen in the first quarter of 2011, as well. It seems not everyone is suffering.

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Eli Rosenberg