Until recent years, the occasional grand cru Burgundy or first-growth Bordeaux was an affordable indulgence for serious wine lovers. But thanks to surging global demand, the world's most sought-after wines are increasingly beyond the reach of all but the world's most affluent oenophiles. Blue-chip Bordeaux and Burgundies, both current and older vintages, have never been costlier. The now-iconic 1982 Petrus, a Bordeaux, was released at $60 per bottle; the 2005 Petrus opened at $2,000. A bottle of the 1998 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musigny, a red Burgundy, could be purchased in France in 2000 for $80; the 2005 Mugnier Musigny is selling for $1,500. 

But private collectors aren’t the only ones feeling the pain—high-end restaurants are, too. Moreover, unlike individual buyers, who have the option of keeping their wallets closed, top restaurants have no choice but to pay the going rates: Their clientele expect to find the likes of Petrus and Mugnier on the wine list. For two of America's most esteemed sommeliers, Daniel Johnnes and Rajat Parr, the frothy market is a test of both resourcefulness and business acumen. It is also an opportunity to cast a spotlight on wines that would otherwise be overlooked.

Johnnes is the wine director for New York chef Daniel Boulud's fast-growing culinary empire, which includes his eponymous New York flagship, three other Manhattan establishments, and restaurants in Las Vegas, Palm Beach, and (soon) Beijing and Vancouver, Canada. Johnnes says demand for the most acclaimed wines and the resulting price inflation has changed his buying patterns. Fifteen years ago, when first-growth Bordeaux and grand cru Burgundies were still reasonably affordable, restaurants could purchase multiple cases of them and keep the wines off the list for a few years in order to let them age sufficiently to show their best stuff. Now, says Johnnes, it is increasingly difficult to procure the stellar vintages (2005 was a brilliant year for both Bordeaux and Burgundy). And because of the high prices that the wines now command—the '05 first growths are selling for more than $1,000 a bottle, as are the most acclaimed '05 grand cru Burgundies—it is a lot harder to defer the return on investment.

"Years ago, you could buy cases of Château Lafite and let them age for years before selling them," says Johnnes. "Lafite is now $10,000 a case, and you can't sock it away like that." Johnnes has bought some 2005 Bordeaux and Burgundies but not in quantities large enough for him to be able hold back a significant amount.

He is focusing instead on older Bordeaux and Burgundies. The most coveted ones are astronomically expensive, but Johnnes says a lot of other excellent wines can be picked up at auction for relatively attractive prices.

"I'm not looking for Romanée-Conti," he says. "I'm interested in things like [Domaine Marquis ] d’Angerville [an acclaimed producer in Burgundy's Volnay appellation] and third- and fourth-growth Bordeaux, and you can often get older vintages of those wines in really good condition." Another source of mature wines: customers who are looking to pare down their collections and are happy to sell on consignment through Boulud's restaurants. "In the last 10 to 15 years," Johnnes says, "so many people have become passionate collectors. And some of them are now looking to thin out their cellars."