Prices for Bordeaux sold en primeur are rocketing, but Irish drinkers can't get enough of them
When the first hint of a great Bordeaux vintage started to float before Christmas, we confidently predicted, along with everyone else, that the already high prices would be stretched even further when the chateaux announced en primeur prices for the 2005 vintage.
But the prices of Bordeaux over the past month or so have driven even the influential US critic Robert Parker to accuse the "aristocrats of the Medoc" of "pride, provincial jealousies, and greed".
He said that the chateaux were "devising a multitude of ways to manipulate the marketplace by creating the illusion of shortages" in holding back their wines and prices in the 2005 en primeur campaign, in which wine-lovers are essentially able to buy wine futures.
"Why a famous chateau can't decide on a realistic price that gives them a good profit, forget that their neighbours might make a few euro more or less, and just sell the wines, must just be too damn simple." Parker's outburst is ironic, since the chateaux base their prices on his reviews. A high 90s score in Parker's book is enough to inspire Bordelais dreams of brazen profits.
Besides, there is some justification for the prices, in the reduced Bordeaux harvest - some claim a fall in production of 25 per cent, compared with 2004 - and in the insatiable demand for their premium wines, such as Margaux and Latour, which are a sign of wealth and privilege the world over.
But it is not just the cost of first growths and "super-second" wines that is heading into the stratosphere. Less celebrated chateaux are now turning the screws on customers who have been loyal through more difficult years, with huge increases on last year's prices.
Here are some examples from www.greenacres.ie, one of the leading en primeur specialists in Ireland. Beau-Séjour Bécot, a St Emilion grand cru classé, will cost you €640 for a case this year, compared to €340 last year; Calon-Ségur, a St Estephe third growth, is €690 this year, up from €340; Nenin, a Pomerol middleweight, weighs in at €530, up from €260, while another leading Pomerol estate, L'Évangile, will cost you €1,700 compared with €775. VAT at 21 per cent, duty and carriage also have to be paid before the wine can be collected in about three years.
And yet James O'Connor of Greenacres reports strong business, with many wines sold out already. Greenacres is not alone. Merchants are reporting huge interest and strong sales, both in Ireland and abroad. The 2005 is certainly a trophy vintage. Thank God for those SSIAs.