THE GLASS is half-empty for Bordeaux estates and wine buffs this year – but may bring more cheer to investors, for whom the “fantastic” vintages of 2009 and 2010 proved a damp squib.
Wine merchants, fresh from tasting the year’s first Bordeaux, are warning that it falls short of the two previous superlative vintages and that prices will need to drop accordingly.
Last year’s incipient “Bordeaux bubble” saw Lafite en primeur (still in the barrel) selling for £10,000 (€12,120) a case and there has been zero subsequent appreciation, merchants say.
“ is not going to compete in terms of quality and certainly needs to be cheap,” said Joss Fowler, who handles fine wine sales at Berry Bros Rudd, one of the biggest UK buyers of Bordeaux.
“With the two very expensive years . . . where wines have not appreciated in price much, people will need financial incentive to buy. Some wines are going to have to be half what they were last year.”
Bordeaux producing Châteaux are expected to start pricing their wine this month in what Antoine Gimbert, who runs the UK and Hong Kong operations for wine merchant Millésima, refers to as “a kind of poker game. It’s a tiny world, so you have to be careful targeting the right price”.
This year that exercise will be more finely poised still. Asian buyers have just begun buying en primeur, said Mr Fowler, meaning their experience to date is unimpressive.
“If they just bought 2009s and 2010s and have not seen any monetary appreciation, they will say ‘What’s the point?’ The risk for Bordeaux is to alienate a market that’s going to be very important to them in the future.”
Drinkers in China and other parts of Asia have proved a boon to purveyors of wine, Scotch whisky and Cognac and other alcoholic drinks by paying for pricey bottles – as much a status symbol among the recently rich as a designer handbag.
Gary Boom, managing director of merchants Bordeaux Index, puts the 2011 vintage on a scale of “6.5 to 7 out of 10”.
He points to the 2008 vintage that was priced cheaply and generated returns, and the 2000 vintage that he describes as “the holy grail: great quality but also low pricing”.
A case of 2000 Château Lafite, bought for £2,000, is now worth £16,000, he says.
Other wines from that year have increased four- and fivefold in value. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012
